


The Lovely Bones

by dunklenacht310



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Bottom Harry, Gay Sex, Good and Evil, Grief/Mourning, Loss, M/M, Mediums, Mentions of Death, Supernatural Forces, Top Zayn, seeing ghosts/spirits AU, some characters are alive and some are spirits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-13 09:02:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 35,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18465775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dunklenacht310/pseuds/dunklenacht310
Summary: It’s all Doniya’s fault, if he’s honest. She was the one who pushed him to take acting classes when he was in high school, and it’s her fault he realized he was good at it and kept doing it for a living.The problem is that it’s not Doniya’s fault that Zayn uses his acting talents to trick people and lie for money.Doniya made the acting classes happen.It was entirelyZayn’sdecision to become a fake medium for a living, though.-Zayn is a con artist who tricks people for money, specifically pretending he can talk to spirits and ghosts. Harry has lost someone very dear to him, and asks Zayn to help him talk to his dead friend. Zayn is almost feeling guilty to trick such a beautiful and nice person. Things take a drastic turn when Harry's dead friend shows up in Zayn's room, almost giving Zayn a coronary.Apparently, Zaynisindeed a medium. He might have to tell that to Harry Styles.





	1. Prologue - Extremely Morally Questionable

**Author's Note:**

> Usual disclaimer: I don't know or own any of the characters present in this work. I only own the plot and the original characters.
> 
> The title is taken from "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold, aka my favourite book.

 

 

_These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence:_

_the connections – sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost,_

_but often magnificent – that happened after I was gone._

– Alice Sebold, “The Lovely Bones”

 

 

Zayn is, quite frankly, an arsehole.

He knows that, he’s the one who gave himself the title, even.

Because he knows that he could have looked for a normal job, but the thing he does instead is _so easy_ that every time he pushes the guilt away and pockets the shitton of money desperate people give him.

It’s all Doniya’s fault, if he’s honest. She was the one who pushed him to take acting classes when he was in high school, and it’s her fault he realized he was good at it and kept doing it for a living.

The problem is that it’s not Doniya’s fault that Zayn uses his acting talents to trick people and _lie_ for money.

Doniya made the acting classes happen.

It was entirely _Zayn’s_ decision to become a fake medium for a living, though.

 

*

 

Zayn was in college the first time it happened, and it was a coincidence and a joke.

Some frat bros from Alpha Ro had come up to him and asked him if he would help them prank one of the Sigma Tau’s, since Zayn was sick at acting. They gave him a bunch of info about the guy, a Parker Mallory, private info Zayn didn’t ask about, and asked him to pretend Mallory’s dead kindergarten teacher was haunting him for stealing Rita Smith’s biscuits every day for three months when they were six.

Parker Mallory, needless to say, almost shit his pants.

Zayn had a lot of fun that day, and the beers the Alpha Ro’s always offered him whenever he decided to accept their party invitations didn’t hurt.

So, roughly a month later, Zayn wondered if he could keep doing that, and make a living out of it.

It turned out that, although Extremely Morally Questionable, he could live on that indeed.

He didn’t have to do more than put up an internet ad, and his phone and email started blowing up. People wanting to see if ghosts haunted their houses, people who desperately wanted to be sure the noises they heard at night were not poltergeists (they weren’t, it was just the neighbours having kinky sex at four in the morning, although Zayn didn’t say it and performed an ‘evil spirit cleansing’ of the place), people who wanted to ask their dead relatives to give them winning lottery numbers.

Zayn is fine with those, and he can even have a laugh after he gets the money. He’s been doing it for five years already. He’s fine.

It’s the _others_ who make him lose his sleep and question his morals.

It’s the people desperately wanting to talk to their dead spouse one last time. The people wanting to know if their disappeared child is dead or alive. The people who lost their friends in an accident and want to know if they were fine on the other side.

It’s people like Harry Styles who make Zayn think he’s a huge arsehole.

 

*

 

Zayn has an infallible course of action with his clients.

He receives them at his own place, a tiny single apartment just across from one of the entrances to Roundhay Park, and he chats them up a little bit. Then, when they trust him, he tells them he needs time to look for the spirit and find it, so they need to come back. While they wait for him, he stalks them.

His social network ability, paired with his acting, makes for a bulletproof plan. He spends hours over those people’s social networks, retrieving information they will think only their lost loved ones will know, and then he feeds it to them until they’re satisfied. Whenever possible, he even tries to ease their despair and worry, so you might as well say Zayn would be a charity if money wasn’t involved.

Money is involved, though, and Zayn didn’t think people were so willing to spend it in such bullshit before starting his own bullshit himself.

Desperate people can go to extreme lengths. Zayn tries not to dwell on that.

So when a guy who goes by the name of Harry Styles calls him, he tells him the address and gives him an appointment.

Harry Styles shows up on the dot, knocking at his door right when the clock strikes 14:00.

Most of Zayn’s clients are well past his parents’ age, so he’s a bit surprised to find someone so young on the threshold.

So young, and so _fit_.

Harry Styles is probably Zayn’s age or just a couple years younger. He’s tall, a bit taller than Zayn, and his hair is long, cascading in brown curls just on top of his shoulders. He’s just wearing a white t-shirt under his unbuttoned navy-blue coat, and his jeans are very tight. Zayn approves, but then schools his features into nothing at all.

He’s always as professional as possible with his clients.

Harry Styles has red-rimmed eyes when he smiles at Zayn. He’s certainly been crying.

“Come in” Zayn tells him.

Harry thanks him and shrugs off his coat and Chelsea boots by the door, hanging the coat and lining up his shoes with Zayn’s. He’s got really poorly thought tattoos scattered along his arm. His very _nice_ arm.

Harry follows Zayn to the small living room, where Zayn gestures to the couch. “Can I offer you anything? Tea, coffee?”

Harry shakes his head. “I’m good, thanks”

 _You don’t really look good, but whatever._ Zayn nods, and sits on the couch, patting it for Harry and trying to smile reassuringly at him. He doesn’t even know why he does it, because his usual attitude is to scare the shit out of his clients so that they believe him, but Harry looks so small and dismayed despite his big clear eyes and his long limbs that Zayn feels a bit protective of him already.

_Bad, bad, Zayn. Focus._

“So, what can I do for you?” Zayn asks with another smile.

Harry sniffles a little. “I… I lost a friend. My best friend”

“I’m sorry”

Harry shakes his head. “I don’t… I honestly don’t even know what possessed me to come here” he says, tormenting the rings on his fingers “I only know that I’ve never believed in this bullshit, err, sorry, I know this is your job so you must believe in it, and I just… I saw your ad and I’m fucking desperate, I need to talk to my friend if you can make it happen”

Zayn smiles. Harry Styles doesn’t even know just _how much_ Zayn himself doesn’t believe in that bullshit. “I’ll need a name”

Harry frowns. “But… you’re a medium?”

Zayn arches his eyebrow. “If you think it works like in fucking _Ghost Whisperer_ or summat, you’re mistaken” he says seriously, repeating what he’s already told maybe a hundred clients before him “Do you have any idea how many spirits I see on a daily basis? I can’t exactly run among them and shout ‘hey, which one of you was friends with a Harry Styles’ now, can I?”

Harry’s cheeks go a dark red at that, and he nods furiously. “Yeah, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. His name was Niall. Niall Horan”

Zayn nods slowly. “Okay, Harry. Then let me run my search. And once I find your friend, I’ll call you and we’ll meet again. Is that okay?”

Harry sighs and nods. “I don’t even know why I’m doing this” he mutters almost to himself as he stands up.

Zayn smiles. “Even if you don’t, your friend Niall will probably tell us”

Harry gives Zayn a smile of his own, and it’s laced with the sadness of loss, a sadness Zayn has become acquainted with in the past five years since he started his ‘activity’, and a sadness he mostly tries to ignore.

He doubts he’ll be able to totally ignore Harry Styles’s sadness, though, because his green eyes are so wide and open and honest, like he doesn’t properly believe in mediums but he somehow chose to believe Zayn.

Zayn would much rather he didn’t.

“What do I owe you?” Harry asks when Zayn leads him back to the door he came in from less than ten minutes ago. First visit is always quick.

Zayn shakes his head. “Nothing. We’ll talk about my fee when I actually do something”

He never charges them for the first visit. It’s too much of a fraud even for him, when he hasn’t even given them the _show_ yet.

Harry sighs and nods. “Okay. Thanks, Zayn. I’ll wait for your call then, and I’ll try not to think I’m losing my mind over my dead best friend”

“Please do” Zayn smiles, and shakes Harry’s hand “I’ll keep in touch, Harry”

Harry nods again, and goes.

 _Niall Horan_ , Zayn thinks as he goes back to his room and starts his laptop.

There are quite a few Niall Horan’s on Facebook and Twitter, but Zayn spots the one he needs right away, because the profile picture of the now – of course – dormant profile shows a blonde lad hugging the curly guy who just left Zayn’s apartment.

He scrolls through the posts and the pictures. Niall and Harry are together in almost every single one of them, hugging and laughing, sitting in the middle of a muddy pool and holding two fishing rods, playing with some children, sitting at a bar table with two other guys, one of them blue-eyed and the other with a really sweet-looking smile.

All that happiness nags at Zayn a little bit as he notes down recurring sentences of Niall’s taken from his comments and posts, because it abruptly ends with a last post, dated November 5th, which reads _Going on a massive adventure with_ _@_ _Harry_Styles!!!_

Harry has unexplainably commented with a mushroom emoji, and that’s the end of Niall Horan’s Twitter and Facebook account. To a quick inspection, that’s also the last post figuring on Harry Styles’s accounts.

“I need a bit more than that, come on” he tells the non-existent spirit of Niall Horan.

Zayn thinks that the death of someone this young can’t have gone unnoticed, so he just decides to google Niall.

A lot of articles pop up, and they all recount the same event. Zayn’s heart constricts a little when he realizes Niall died right on the 5th of November, so less than a month ago.

_The tragic death of 28-year-old Niall Horan leaves all of Leeds in tears. Gone on a hiking trail, the Irish law intern has accidentally and fatally tripped on a hidden tree root, falling head first into the river below the border of the signalled path, and hitting his head on a rock, dying on the spot. His best friend Harry Styles, 27, present at the time of the accident, has not been able to do anything to prevent this tragic accident._

“Fucking hell” Zayn sighs, feeling worse and worse for Harry as he tries and fails to imagine how traumatizing it must have been for him to watch his best friend hit his head and die without being able to do anything about it.

“You’re gonna need more than this if you wanna trick Haz” a voice right next to his ear says, and Zayn has a heart attack.


	2. The Dark Ones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It feels so right, hugging Harry. Zayn doesn’t really do hugs, except with his family, but this hug with Harry doesn’t feel weird, especially not when Harry hugs him back, his tears coming to a stop eventually. “Sorry” Harry sniffles “I feel like I haven’t done anything but cry in the past month”  
> “It’s okay, babe” Zayn whispers, brushing the hair on the back of Harry’s head “You can cry until you need it”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Usual disclaimer: I don't know or own any of the characters present in this work. I only own the plot and the original characters.

 

 

Zayn is not proud of the embarrassing squeal he emits when he hears the voice, but he does. He almost shits his pants and he jumps up from his chair, letting it fall to the floor as he turns.

His stomach flips when he sees the guy standing in front of him with a shit-eating grin, because he _knows_ the guy.

It’s Niall Horan.

 _Dead_ Niall Horan.

“I’m asleep” Zayn decides “I’m asleep and I’m dreaming”

He even pinches his own leg to wake up, but he stays right where he is, and so does Niall fucking Horan, still grinning.

“I’m afraid you ain’t” Niall sighs, and plops on Zayn’s bed. The mattress doesn’t dip under his weight, but Niall bounces anyway “I’m really here. I’d say ‘here in the flesh’, but alas, no flesh”

“What the fuck? Am I losing my mind?” Zayn chokes out, his throat feeling like cotton.

Niall shrugs. “That depends. I’d say you’ve lost your mind right when you thought it was a good idea to trick people for money, but I’m not the best judge of character, since I also thought it was a good idea to mix Jameson and Red Bull once. Advice from the Other Side, mate: don’t ever do that”

“Why would I even _think_ about doing that? It sounds fucking disgusting” Zayn comments, and then wants to kick himself, because he’s actually talking to a _ghost_ about drinks that shouldn’t mix.

Niall laughs. It’s this barking sound, his face scrunched up exactly like it is in all of his pictures, and Zayn’s mouth involuntarily curves upwards. It’s a contagious laughter.

“Are you… a ghost?” Zayn asks, feeling lame and crazy beyond repair.

Niall tuts. “Well that’s just rude now, innit?” he chuckles “We prefer the term _Remnants_ ”

“W-We?” Zayn squeaks. It’s not an attractive sound, but he fucking needs to fucking _squeak_.

Niall chuckles again. “Yeah. We. The ones who stayed back” he says “The ones with unfinished business. Most of us died suddenly, so we have unfinished business and we stayed”

“I have to sit” Zayn declares, feeling his knees wobble.

Niall pats the bed next to him. Again, the mattress doesn’t give under his movement.

Zayn gulps down, and slowly closes the distance between him and Niall, sitting on the bed, right at the corner so they aren’t too close.

“I don’t bite” Niall assures him with an open smile “I know fuck all about why I’m here, same as you. It doesn’t mean I mean you harm. Although I’d very much like it if you didn’t suck my best friend dry”

Zayn feels his face heat up, but Niall misinterprets his embarrassment, because he barks another laugh. “Wasn’t talking about _really_ sucking him. You can be my guest if you wanna blow him, he was giving you the eye anyway” the ghost, the Remnant, says “I meant his money. He doesn’t have that much of it, so I don’t want a con artist to take the little he has. No offence”

“None taken” Zayn says half-heartedly, thinking that the conversation is becoming weirder and weirder by the second. He sighs and gulps down again. “Why are you here?”

Niall shrugs. “I don’t know. I mostly only follow my Hazza, trying to make him understand I’m actually fine. That’s part of the reason he called you, by the way. I think he wants to talk to me because he wants to make sure I’m okay and say sorry for my death”

Zayn frowns. “It was an accident”

“Yeah, tell him that when you call him back” Niall laughs a little “He’s probably blaming himself. Not sleeping, not eating. Worries me sick, the fucker. Except not really sick, ‘cause you know, I’m already dead”

Zayn, despite the absurdity of it all, laughs. “Why did you stay when he left, then? To give me a coronary?”

Niall shrugs again. “I don’t know. There’s something in you, I guess. I felt compelled or summat. You’re not like any other Alive One” he says, and Zayn feels like he’s capitalizing the letters.

Zayn takes a breath. “I am, though?” he tries “Niall, I don’t know what the fuck’s happening, but a con artist, as you said, that’s all I am. I never _saw_ a gho… Remnant, before”

Niall grins. “Oh, you’re different alright, mate. I can see it” he replies “There’s a… light, around you. It’s not particularly bright, more like a purple light, all around your body. We can all see it, when you walk down the streets and pass us by. I think your ability was dormant, or something like that. And Hazza woke it up for you”

“Hazza, as in, your friend Harry?”

Niall nods. “He’s an Amplifier. They’re rare. My Remnant friends told me about ‘em, I only ever saw it in Harry since I died. He’s got the same light around his body that you have, only it’s blue. It’s like he’s a booster for the spirits, I think. We feel more _present_ when we’re around him. I can touch things for real sometimes, when he’s close to me. That’s why he started believing in this kind of shit” he snickers “I pulled a Patrick Swayze on him. Flung a coin through the room. Next thing he does, he looks you up and calls you”

Zayn snorts. “You scared the shit out of him. He looked like shit”

“Yeah, sorry, my Hazza, but I couldn’t resist. Anyway, the point is that you were with Harry, and he probably unblocked your powers or something. I saw your purple light ripple. So I hid here because I didn’t want you to pop a blood vessel right in front of poor Haz”

Zayn sighs. “What am I gonna do? I can’t just keep lying to him. Or to anyone, for that matter” he mumbles.

Niall hums. “Well, you don’t have to, now. You can just do what you always do, only this time you do it for real” he states “And maybe manage to get my best friend to sleep more than two hours per night, too”

Zayn nods. “How… Jesus, what does this even mean? Am I able to see _all_ of you, now?”

Niall stands up. “Only one way to find out, mate” he says, stretching a hand for Zayn “Take a walk with me. Let’s look around a little bit. And don’t talk out loud to me if you don’t want your fellow Alive Ones to think you’ve gone batshit”

Zayn sighs and tries to take Niall’s hand, on instinct. His hand goes right through Niall’s, and a feeling of cold creeps up his whole arm. “Fucking hell” he murmurs, retreating his hand.

Niall laughs. “Sorry, mate. I’ve only been dead for a month, still gotta get used to the No Touching The Alive Ones thing”

 

*

 

They don’t go very far before Zayn spots another Remnant.

He realizes the man is like Niall because of how he looks. It’s not like they’re bright, the Remnants, but there’s _something_ around them, something Zayn can’t really point out or describe. It looks like the saturated aura around something very hot, when the air starts to be wobbly around the edges.

The man is – _was_ – probably younger than forty, and he’s following a woman as she speaks to the phone. She seems very engrossed in the conversation, and the man just shakes his head fondly and chuckles. He looks at Zayn when he passes him and Niall by. He just nods, still following the woman on the phone, and Zayn nods back, astonished. Niall waves energetically at him.

“Grant” he explains to Zayn as they sit on a bench “Died three years ago. That was his wife, Megan. We think Grant’s unfinished business is watching Megan finally open the bookstore they were dreaming about opening together”

Zayn decides to be safe and plugs one of his earbuds in his ear, so that if people see him talking to himself, they’ll think he’s on the phone. “Sick idea, didn’t think about that” Niall offers.

Zayn shrugs. “You said _you think_? You don’t _know_ what your unfinished business is?”

Niall shakes his head. “We have a gut feeling, but nothing more. I lived a pretty happy and fulfilling life. So I guess my unfinished business is just making sure Haz and my family are fine”

Zayn nods. He fishes his cigarettes from his pocket and lights one.

“Those things will kill you, you know” Niall comments.

Zayn arches an eyebrow. “You didn’t smoke and yet you died before me anyway”

Niall laughs. “Touché” he concedes “How do you even know I didn’t smoke?”

“I’m good at my job” Zayn replies with a grin “Not even one of your pics showed you with a cigarette in hand. And as a smoker, you’ll never fucking catch me going on a hiking trail”

Niall nods, a bit impressed if Zayn says so himself, and they stay silent until something catches Zayn’s eye.

It’s a guy, walking on the opposite sidewalk from them with his shoulders hunched. He looks vaguely familiar, but it’s not the guy himself that shocks Zayn. It’s the ball of light following him, flying in frantic and heady circles around the guy’s head and shoulders.

The guy stops and sits under a tree in the park, lighting a cigarette. The ball of light starts to lose its shit, and Zayn feels like he can hear its thoughts, something along the lines of _don’t fucking smoke, those things will kill you_.

Zayn looks at Niall, but Niall is staring at the guy and his ball of light with a fond smile. “That’s my friend Liam, and the ball of light is Louis” Niall says, his tone a bit quieter “The balls of light are the Light Ones. They don’t have any shape or voice. You can feel their general attitude and what they want to convey, but you can never talk to them, not like when we were alive anyway. The Light Ones are just here, they accompany their loved ones who are alive when they need the support. They make people happier”

Zayn sees the guy, Liam, look at something on his phone, and then Liam smiles. Once he does, Zayn realizes he’s seen him in the pictures with Harry and Niall, together with a blue-eyed lad, who must be Louis, the currently flipping ball of light floating around Liam’s head like he’s laughing at the same thing on Liam’s phone.

“Louis died of lung cancer a year ago” Niall tells Zayn, still staring at Louis and Liam “He and Liam were together, had been for years. Me and Haz were just waiting for Liam to pop the question, same as Louis”

Zayn’s heart sways a little. “I’m sorry” he murmurs.

“Don’t be” Niall smiles, and the sun covers him but doesn’t cast any shadows on him “They’re fine. Louis died peacefully. Accepted his fate and all. He moved on, all the Light Ones have. They just _choose_ to come here and watch over their friends. They’re not stuck like us Remnants”

Zayn wants to say that he’s sorry again, but Niall doesn’t give him time. “Don’t say sorry again” he chuckles “I don’t feel like I’m stuck, not really. I guess I’m not ready to move on yet. Someone needs to watch over poor Hazza anyway. And Liam too, I guess. Losing both me and Louis in less than a year must not be fun and games. I’d have died if I’d been the one left alive”

Zayn nods. He doesn’t have any friends. He has a lot of acquaintances, but none of those ties is even half as strong as what he feels coming from Niall when he talks about _his_ friends.

Zayn smiles a little, and then he sees Louis fly his way towards them. Niall barks a laugh, but Louis dives straight for Zayn’s face, sparkling and flickering in front of his eyes with a belligerent vibe that tells Zayn without a doubt something like _you gotta take care of Harry or I’ll fuck you up._

Zayn chuckles. “I don’t even know the lad” he says.

 _I don’t fucking care_ , Louis replies, _He called you for help. Now you help him. Without asking for a single fucking pound. And if you also fuck the shit out of him like he’s dreamed since he first saw you, I won’t complain._

Zayn chokes on his smoke. “Didn’t you say the Light Ones don’t talk?” he shrieks.

Louis laughs and flies back to Liam after quickly circling Niall’s head and ruffling his hair like the normal wind never could.

Niall laughs too. “They don’t” he assures “I guess you can hear their thoughts more precisely than the rest of us. I just felt like he was warning you about Haz”

Zayn chuckles. “Yeah, he was doing that alright”

Niall laughs again, but the laughter suddenly dies in his throat. He’s staring at something far away to his right, and Zayn follows his gaze. His stomach lurches.

There’s a teenage girl walking, with big headphones covering her ears. She’s crying and she’s very pale as well, but what scares Zayn the most is the big, looming dark shadow towering over her. As she goes by, Zayn sees two white eyes in the shadow, and he also notices the dark spirit is attached to the girl’s back.

“That’s a Dark One” Niall says grimly “We try to stay clear of them. They’re bad things, Zayn. They tether themselves to people with problems, feed on their despair. And the darker their mood becomes, the bigger the Dark Ones get, until they’re big enough to detach themselves and roam the earth on their own. They’re more like demons than spirits”

“Fuck” Zayn breathes out.

As soon as he speaks, the shadow on the girl’s back turns its dark head, and its white eyes stare at Zayn. “ _Zayn Malik_ ” the shadow says “ _The Reaper_ ”

“Holy shit” Niall hisses “I never heard one _speak_ ”

Zayn is completely frozen. He feels something burn in his hands, like there’s a pull towards that shadow, like he suddenly has an urge to fight it. The Dark One turns its head away, though, and keeps being linked to the small, despairing girl, who quickens her pace and disappears. Zayn’s hands shake and his whole body shivers. He hates the Dark Ones, he decides.

“What the fuck was that? Why did it know my name? What’s a Reaper?” Zayn asks Niall.

Niall shakes his head. “I don’t know. I’ll ask around. Holy fuck, that was fucking scary”

Louis flickers from Liam’s side. _Yeah, it fucking was_ , he screams at them.

Zayn, despite still feeling a bit out of sorts, chuckles. “I need to think about all this” he decides “And then I’ll call your Hazza, and I’ll help you make sure he’s okay”

Niall smiles.

 _Good lad_ , Louis offers from afar.

 

*

 

“What if he doesn’t believe me?” Zayn asks Niall as he waits for Harry.

Niall rolls his eyes. “Zayn, if you managed to make a couple believe they had _three poltergeists_ in their house when it was just the neighbours being into some heavy dom/sub shit, then you can make Hazza believe in the _truth_ ”

“But that’s exactly the point” Zayn sighs “I’m good at acting. I’m not good at… real deals”

 _Too bad, mate, he’s about to ring the bell_ , Louis comments. He’s there as well, flickering around the room like a hyped neon light.

True to his words, a moment later the doorbell rings.

Harry still has red-rimmed eyes when he smiles weakly at Zayn from the threshold. Zayn smiles back and lets him in, leading him to the living room much as it happened the day before. The only difference is that this time, Niall’s with them too, and so is Louis, who starts floating frantically above their heads, shouting profanities along the lines of _I fucking miss you, Haz._

Zayn chuckles. Harry frowns at him, but doesn’t ask anything as he sits on the couch next to Zayn.

Zayn doesn’t even know where to start, but Harry helps by speaking first. “Did you… did you find him?”

Zayn nods. “Yeah, I did. Scared the shit out of me”

“Why?”

Zayn doesn’t want to lie to Harry. Harry’s there with his big teary eyes, looking at Zayn like he holds every secret of the world in his hands, and Zayn realizes right there and then that he can’t, _won’t_ , lie to Harry Styles about anything.

“Okay, listen” Zayn sighs “I’m a filthy liar. I trick people. I’ve never seen a fucking ghost in my whole life”

Harry’s face falls. He moves to stand up, but Zayn blocks him, grabs his hand and keeps him there next to him. “I knew this was just a bunch of bulls…”

“I never did until yesterday” Zayn interrupts him.

Harry is motionless and his face is unreadable when he looks at Zayn again. “Meaning?”

“Meaning that I’ve never been a real medium. But after you left yesterday, I was looking up what happened to Niall. And then Niall showed up behind me, making me almost shit my pants, and told me that I am a fucking medium indeed. Or something like that anyway”

Harry sighs and his whole body is tense, although he doesn’t remove his hand from under Zayn. “I don’t think I can believe you, Zayn. I didn’t think I could believe you even before you told me to my face that you’re lying”

“I’m not lying now” Zayn insists, and he’s never wanted anyone to believe him so desperately as he wants this tall man with hippie hair to “I can prove it to you”

Harry arches an eyebrow. “How?”

Zayn doesn’t really know. He looks at Niall, who’s standing right next to Harry. Niall sighs. “Do this to him” he says, and then comes in front of Zayn. He suddenly elongates his arms, one on each side of Zayn’s head, his pointer fingers out, and his face right on Zayn’s.

“Really” Zayn mutters.

Harry looks at him like he’s batshit, and Zayn probably is. “Just do it” Niall urges Zayn.

Zayn obeys. He crowds right in Harry’s space, feeling him flinch, and repeats Niall’s gesture on Harry.

Harry gasps, clutching his heart like Zayn has just shot him, and tears start immediately forming in his eyes. “Niall?” he whines.

Niall sighs a smile. “Yeah, Hazza. I’m here”

“He’s here” Zayn tells Harry “I don’t even know what the fuck that gesture means. He told me to do it so that you would believe me”

Harry sniffles and wipes his eyes with his fingers. “It’s our secret move” he says, his voice shaking “Nobody knows about it. Only me and him. Is he… is he _really_ here? This is fucking mental, am I going crazy?”

“He’s really here” Zayn assures “Didn’t leave me the fuck alone since yesterday”

 _It is what it is_ , Louis comments.

“But it is what it is” Zayn adds.

Harry gasps again, and stares at Zayn with quivering lips. Zayn tries to smile. “Yeah. Louis too”

“Oh, my God” Harry moans, burying his face in his hands “What the fuck, what the fuck”

“Hey, hey, babe” Zayn murmurs, stroking his arm “I know it’s a lot. It was a lot for me too, yesterday. I don’t even know what the fuck I’m doing, to be honest. And I am. Honest. Now”

Harry raises his face again, and he chuckles. “Is Niall rolling his eyes?”

Zayn looks at Niall, and Harry’s right. “Yeah” he smiles.

Harry does too. “How are they… are they okay? How do they look? Where are they?”

Zayn points at where Niall is standing and in the general direction of Louis’s flickering.

He explains to Harry everything he knows. Everything Niall told him, he tells Harry. About the Remnants, the Light Ones, and the Dark Ones. He feels like Harry is maybe the only person on Earth who would ever believe him, no matter how many people are willing to pay for the show of it.

Harry’s real, and Zayn wants to be real too.

He also tells Harry about him being an Amplifier, and how Niall thinks he’s the one who awakened Zayn’s ability to see.

“Fucking hell” Harry comments at last.

 _Does Liam know Haz’s here?_ , Louis asks, halting his loops in the air.

Zayn repeats the question for Harry. Harry shakes his head. “I didn’t tell him. He’s… he was doing so great, we were recovering, after Louis died. Then… then Niall did too, and he’s been so _sad_ , lately, I didn’t wanna make him think his only remaining friend is going batshit”

_You have to tell him, Haz. I want him to know I’m here._

“Louis wants you to tell Liam” Zayn tells Harry “He wants Liam to know he’s not alone, not ever”

Harry nods. “He’s gonna lose it”

_We’ll have Zayn do a little show for him as well, and he’ll believe us._

Zayn arches his eyebrow. “Louis said he’s gonna make me do another show”

Harry laughs. “Yeah, that’s something he would say” he concedes “Zayn? Can I… can I talk to Niall?”

Zayn nods. “He’s right here next to you. Go ahead”

“I’m sorry” Harry moans, bursting into tears again “I’m so sorry I didn’t catch you. I’m sorry you died”

Niall sighs. “It’s not your fucking fault, Haz. I was distracted and I tripped. It’s fine. You couldn’t have done anything. It is what it is. I just want you to be okay and move on, so that I can move on too”

Zayn repeats Niall’s words exactly as they are, because he feels immensely sorry that Harry can’t hear them himself. Once he’s done, if he was waiting for something big to happen, he’s mistaken.

Nothing happens. Even after Niall tells Harry it’s not his fault, he still stays there with them.

Zayn looks at Niall, and Niall looks back at him. “He doesn’t believe me” Niall says, dismayed “He still thinks it’s his fault, that’s why I’m still here. He needs to believe it”

 _Can’t get rid of guilt and grief in a single second, Ni_ , Louis comments.

Zayn knows Niall can’t hear Louis’s thought that precisely, but he must get the general gist of it, because he sighs again and kneels in front of Harry, staring at him even if Harry can’t see him. “I’ll be here until you’re ready to let me go, Hazza” he assures “Until the day you believe me, and you’ll be okay”

“He’s still here” Zayn only tells Harry, feeling his stomach churn “He says he’s staying until you’re ready to move on”

“I don’t know how” Harry murmurs “What if I never will?”

“I’ll help” Zayn decides, before he can second-guess himself.

Harry stares at him. “Why? You don’t even know me”

“I will help anyway if you let me” Zayn tries.

Harry stays silent for a long moment, during which Niall rolls his eyes again and Louis cackles around the room.

“Yeah. Yeah, okay” Harry says at last “And stop rolling your fucking eyes, Niall”

 

*

 

Harry stays for dinner.

Zayn is not actually sure why he asks him to, but he knows that Harry must feel incredibly alone in his own place, since Niall has told Zayn that he and Harry were not only best friends, but also roommates. Zayn must get it right, though, because Harry just accepts with a nod, and doesn’t leave.

Zayn cancels the two appointments he’d scheduled for the evening, because he still hasn’t deliberated on whether he wants to work with his ‘power’ now that it’s real, or whether he wants to keep pretending anymore. He’ll think about it later. He has enough money to live on for at least a while, so he’ll decide what to do another time. When he doesn’t have fit, sweet Harry Styles sitting on his counter and dangling his legs like he just _belongs_ in Zayn’s space, as if they haven’t met only twenty-four hours earlier.

Zayn makes samosas. He knows he’s not as good as his mum in the kitchen, but samosas are kind of his specialty, so he thinks it’s safe to do those. And they’re filling enough to make sure Harry’s got some decent food in his belly, since Niall has expressed his worry about Harry not eating enough.

“Can I help?” Harry asks after a moment of silence.

Zayn smiles. “You can cut the onions if you don’t mind? They make me cry, like, a lot”

Harry jumps off the counter and nods, retrieving the onions, the knife and the cutting board from Zayn’s hands. “My eyes are onion-proof” Harry declares.

Louis starts to flicker over Harry’s hands cutting the onions. _But your fingers ain’t knife-proof and you’re a klutz, so be careful_ , he comments.

“I also happen to be an expert vegetable cutter” Harry adds.

 _OH JESUS YOU’RE SUCH A FUCKING LIAR_ , Louis screams, sparkling more intensely.

Zayn snorts. “Louis just said you’re lying and you’re a klutz”

Harry’s face goes bright red at that, his eyes trained on the onions. “Shut up, Lou” he mutters.

Louis laughs and flies over Harry’s face, slipping through Harry’s hair and ruffling it like a gush of wind. Harry gasps and drops the knife, his green eyes wide as he looks at Zayn. “Zayn? What was that? You saw that, right? Something brushed my hair”

Zayn chuckles. “It was Louis, babe”

“Harry’s light is kinda brighter when you’re with him” Niall offers from where he’s sitting on the counter just where Harry was sitting five minutes earlier.

Zayn frowns and looks at Harry. He can’t see any blue light around him, same as he can’t see his own light in the mirror, but he finds himself believing Niall after the craziness of the past day.

“I think you two make each other stronger for some reason, and that makes us stronger as well” Niall continues “Maybe it’s ‘cause of his Amplifier thing?”

“If you don’t know, I can’t know either, Niall” Zayn answers.

Harry flinches, frantically searching the air around Zayn with a desperate gaze, and Zayn curses himself for talking to Harry’s dead friend out loud and so casually, when it must be hell for Harry to know Niall and Louis are right there, and he can’t see them.

“Is he here as well?” Harry asks in a tiny voice, concentrating on the onions again.

Zayn sighs. “Yeah. He said that your… Amplifier thing looks stronger when you’re with me”

Harry shakes his head with an incredulous chuckle. “I can’t believe I’m actually believing all this shit” he mutters “I feel like Demi fucking Moore right now”

“Are you implying I’m Whoopi Goldberg?” Zayn comments.

Harry laughs. It’s a lovely sound, and Zayn realizes he hasn’t ever heard Harry laugh before, not since they met. “She is a legend, though” Harry replies.

Zayn shrugs. “Eh, I’ll take it, I guess” he concedes.

 _Ni, do something, let’s see if it works_ , Louis supplies.

Niall laughs. “Want me to pull another Patrick Swayze on poor Hazza?”

 _Yes!_ , Louis screams and laughs.

“You might want to know that it was Niall who flung that coin through your room some time ago” Zayn tells Harry “And that he and Louis are planning on pulling another Patrick Swayze on you right now”

Harry laughs and shakes his head. “Jesus Christ, scared the shit out of me” he says.

“Traitor” Niall tells Zayn.

“What do they wanna do now?” Harry asks, with a fond eyeroll.

“Not gonna tell you. I don’t trust you anymore” Niall says as Louis flickers next to his ear, flashing brighter as he tries to convey some sort of plan into Niall’s ear even though he can’t speak to Niall like he can to Zayn.

“They won’t tell me” Zayn tells Harry.

Harry shrugs. “We’ll have to wait for the masterplan, then”

After a moment, Niall smiles and goes behind Harry. Niall looks like he’s concentrating very hard as he stretches a hand towards the knife in Harry’s hand. The air around him vibrates harder than what Zayn now knows to be ‘normal’, and after two failed attempts, Niall manages to have an actual grip on the knife.

Harry shrieks when Niall’s hand touches his, and Zayn knows he’s experiencing the cold feeling Zayn also went through when his fingers went right through Niall’s. Once Harry’s hand is gone, Niall has a hold of the knife, and starts arranging the onions on the cutting board.

Zayn knows it must be completely crazy for Harry to look at a floating knife. Harry’s shaking bodily, staring at what he sees as diced onions moving by themselves. Niall laughs, and keeps pushing the vegetables around until they’re shaped as an H and a heart on the counter.

 _Sick_ , Louis comments.

Harry stares at it for one more second, and then bursts out crying, covering his face with his hands. “Oh, Niall” he sobs.

“Ah, shit, didn’t mean to make him cry again” Niall utters, his shoulders hunching as he lets go of the knife with a heavy sigh, like it’s taken a lot of strength for him to hold it. “Can you hug him, Zayn? Please? He fucking needs it and I can’t, I _can’t_ ” he adds, frustratedly.

Zayn is already moving before Niall speaks, if he’s honest. He sighs as he gently pulls Harry by an arm, and Harry goes kinda willingly. Zayn holds him to his chest and wraps his arms around his middle, not even caring that Harry has buried his face in his neck and he’s making a mess of Zayn’s shirt.

It feels so right, hugging Harry. Zayn doesn’t really do hugs, except with his family, but this hug with Harry doesn’t feel weird, especially not when Harry hugs him back, his tears coming to a stop eventually. “Sorry” Harry sniffles “I feel like I haven’t done anything but cry in the past month”

“It’s okay, babe” Zayn whispers, brushing the hair on the back of Harry’s head “You can cry until you need it”

“I’m so sorry, Haz” Niall mutters, defeated.

“It’s okay” Zayn tells him as well “You’re all gonna be okay”

 _I miss Liam_ , Louis says. Even his tone is grim, his light has faded a little bit and he’s almost not moving, just floating there.

“You’re a Light One, you’re supposed to be happy for all of us” Zayn tells him good-naturedly, still hugging Harry.

Louis emits a loud shriek at that, and promptly flies through the room, hitting Zayn’s PlayStation (and managing to make it rattle for real) until it turns on.

Harry gasps and removes himself from Zayn’s hug to look at the source of the noise. “Lou?” he asks, tentatively, like he just has a feeling it’s Louis.

 _FIFA_ , Louis screams, flickering brightly as usual again.

Zayn snorts. “I think he wants to cheer you up by suggesting we play FIFA”

“I’m shit at video games” Harry frowns.

 _But it’s great fun to watch you lose dishonourably_ , Louis retorts.

Harry arches an eyebrow. “He just said it’s fun to watch me lose, didn’t he?”

Zayn laughs, and nods. “Dishonourably” he adds.

Harry scoffs. “A total arsehole about it even in the afterlife” he murmurs, resuming his onion cutting “Thanks, Zayn” he adds, quieter.

“For what?”

Harry shrugs. “For helping me talk to them” he just says.

“Anytime” Zayn smiles, and he kinda means it.

 

*

 

Harry goes home, and Niall and Louis go with him, because he probably needs the cheering up. Zayn sees him off with a Tupperware of more samosas, and asks him to text him when he’s home safe, since it’s so late in the night.

Harry does text Zayn, forty minutes later. _I’m home. I think Niall is too. Unless it was a poltergeist who removed the bookmark from the book I’m reading._

Zayn chuckles. _It was definitely Niall, babe_ , he replies, feeling an incredible fondness towards Harry already settled in his chest.

They’ve gotten to know each other a little better during the dinner and the – dishonourably lost by Harry, with Louis’s otherworldly amusement – game of FIFA, and Zayn feels guilty for having even _thought_ of tricking Harry like he did countless people before him.

Harry’s just so inherently _good_ , it makes Zayn a little hot and a little bothered. He’s so sweet and caring that even loss and grief look good on him, enhance the way his eyes are open and honest, make his tiny dimpled smiles more valuable somehow.

During the evening, Zayn has decided he won’t make money out of people’s grief and curiosity anymore. The decision happened right about the second Harry had looked like he didn’t judge Zayn for it, but he didn’t approve of it either.

 _I talked to Liam, too_ , Harry text him then, _He’s not necessarily believing me, but he’s not thinking that I’ve gone batshit either._

Zayn knows what’s coming, so he doesn’t reply and just lets Harry type some more. _Do you think you can meet him, tomorrow? I think I feel a bit better after what you did for me tonight, and I think Liam needs it as well._

 _I didn’t do shit for you, Harry_ , Zayn says honestly.

He can feel Harry’s small shrug in his next text. _You let me speak to them. You showed me that even if they’re dead, they’re still here and still themselves._

Zayn sighs. _Fair enough, babe. Tell me when and where._

 

*

 

They meet at Roundhay Park, the park just a couple minutes away from Zayn’s house, the same place where Zayn has already spotted Liam two days earlier.

Niall shows up when Zayn is already there, sitting under the same tree where Liam had been while Niall explained the Other Side to Zayn.

“Hey” Zayn smiles. If he doesn’t focus on the saturated air around Niall, the Irish lad can just look like any other person. But he isn’t, and Zayn should not forget it. He should also make sure Harry doesn’t forget it.

“They’re coming” Niall says, sitting next to Zayn and trying to flick the cigarette from his lips. His finger goes right through it, and the coldness radiates on Zayn’s lips.

“Mate, you gotta stop doing that” Zayn complains, massaging his lips to make them warm up again.

Niall cackles. “Sorry, sorry. How are you?”

“Afraid your friend Liam’s gonna punch me in the face”

“Nah” Niall cackles “Liam’s a good egg. Just a bit more suspicious than Haz. He’ll believe you”

Zayn doesn’t have time to reply before he spots Harry’s curly hair in the distance. He’s walking next to another man who Zayn immediately recognizes as Liam. Louis is there as well, frolicking around both their heads. Liam’s smiling, and Harry too.

 _I busted my arse to make him super happy for your sake, don’t fuck it up_ , Louis screams at Zayn from where they are.

“Your friend Louis is the most expressive non-voiced being I’ve ever met” Zayn mutters to Niall.

Niall barks a laugh. “Yeah. Was a pain in the arse with his screams even when he was still alive, Louis Tomlinson”

Zayn stands up when Harry and Liam reach him. “Hey” Harry smiles at him. He’s holding two paper cups of coffee, and he hands one to Zayn. To a closer inspection, the cup reveals itself to be from Zayn’s favourite café, and the coffee is a double macchiato with a hint of cinnamon, just how Zayn likes it.

 _I’m supposed to be the psychic one_ , he thinks to himself as he thanks Harry.

“So _this_ is the medium?” Liam asks Harry, but he’s looking at Zayn with an arched eyebrow.

Harry clears his throat and not so subtly kicks Liam in the ankle. “Liam, this is Zayn. Zayn, this is my friend Liam”

“I don’t think I’m a medium” Zayn offers as he stretches a hand for Liam.

Liam stares at him for a moment, but then he shakes his hand with a sigh. “Sorry, sorry” he says “It’s just… kinda crazy? What Haz told me”

Zayn nods. “I feel you, mate, really” he admits as sincerely as he can.

All three of them sit down in the grass, cross-legged and holding their coffees. None of them speaks for a while, until Niall scoffs. “Oh, for Christ’s sake, just do something” he exclaims loudly.

It makes Zayn start, and a little bit of coffee sloshes out of the cup.

Liam frowns. “You okay?”

“It’s Niall for sure” Harry says with his eyebrows arched “Patience, my friend”

Liam looks at Harry, and then at Zayn, and then around the three of them, aimlessly. “Jesus” he mutters, and then clears his throat twice. “Is he… here?”

Zayn nods. Much like he’s done with Harry, he starts to slowly explain everything to Liam as well. How Harry came to his house asking him to find Niall, how Niall showed up, and what led to that.

By the end of Zayn’s speech, Liam is frowning even more. “So… Louis, too?”

Zayn nods. “He’s floating right over your head. He’s the reason you were feeling particularly happy this morning”

Liam gapes. “How do you _know_ that?”

Zayn shrugs. “He told me” he says.

 _Tell him that handjob he gave me in my hospital bed the day before I died was the best of my life_ , Louis says.

Zayn almost chokes on his spit, feeling his face get warmer and warmer when he realizes Louis is actually serious. “I can’t tell him that, he’ll punch me in my fucking nose” he says.

Liam is blinking, and he probably thinks Zayn’s just a nutcase, but when Louis flickers in a way that Zayn can only interpret as a shrug, he decides to follow the lead of a fucking ball of light and be done with it.

He beckons Liam closer with his hand, because like hell he’s telling him _that_ in front of Harry, and when Liam leans over, Zayn puts his mouth to his ear and whispers to him what Louis just said.

Liam does not, in fact, punch Zayn in the nose, but his face does a lot of things. He gapes, then frowns, then blushes. His cup of coffee goes to fuck itself, slipping from his hand and spilling its contents in the grass.

Liam coughs. “Oh, fuck, he’s really here, there’s no way you would know _that_ ” he declares.

Harry chuckles. “I don’t know what _that_ is, but I told you, Leeyum. Zayn can see them. Both of them”

Liam nods. “Yeah, yeah. Okay. Fuck. Okay” he concedes, stroking his eyes with the heels of his hands and chuckling “Fucking hell”

That about sums it up, Zayn thinks.

“So… he’s fine. Moved on and all?” Liam asks, and there’s wonder and hope in his eyes.

Zayn nods. “Yeah, he did. He’s okay. He’s not stuck like the Remnants. He _chooses_ to be with you, much like he did when he was alive, I believe”

Liam smiles. It’s a sweet smile, which makes his whole face light up, and Louis flashes brightly by reflex, shouting obscenities and looping in the air above them. “He’s happy you believe me” Zayn offers.

Liam looks up, following Zayn’s eyes. “Hey, babe” he says “Thanks for choosing me all over again”

 _I fucking love you_ , Louis replies with a laugh.

“He fucking loves you” Zayn translates with a chuckle of his own.

His eyes land on Harry after that. He’s smiling, albeit weakly, and he’s eradicating grass threads from the soil, his eyes cast down.

“Haz?” Zayn calls him.

Harry raises his head. “What about Niall? What are we gonna do about him?”

Zayn wants to tell him a lot of things, to make that sadness go away. He wants to tell Harry that Niall’s always gonna be stuck there if Harry keeps believing that his death was his fault. He wants to tell him Niall doesn’t feel stuck, because he’s not ready to let go yet, and Zayn can see it in the way Niall seems more _present_ than the few other Remnants Zayn has already seen.

But Harry needs to come to terms with his guilt and grief on his own time, so Zayn only smiles. “We’ll take care of his unfinished business eventually. Let him move on when he’s ready and you are as well”

Harry’s smile is a bit brighter after Zayn says that. He nods. “Okay”

“Good job” Niall tells Zayn. He pats Zayn on the shoulder, and the cold spreads, but Zayn doesn’t do anything about it. Niall has been dead for such a short time, he probably still needs a physical contact he’ll never properly get again.

“Thanks, Zayn” Liam says after a moment, with another sweet smile.

Zayn shrugs. “Might as well do something good with this new ability of mine” he says “Make up for all the shit I sold people in the last five years. I won’t do that again” he adds, mainly for Harry “I removed my ad from the internet and I cancelled all my appointments”

Harry sighs. “But you could still do that?” he tries “I mean, at least for people like us? You can give closure to people, Zayn. It must count for something”

Zayn chuckles, and it’s a bit more bitter than he intends. “I’ve gotta come to terms with what I do first, babe” he replies, and he can’t quite look at Harry while he speaks “If I ever figure out just _what_ it is that I do, that is”

“We can help you if you let us” Harry answers, with a smile, echoing the words Zayn told him the night before.

Zayn smiles and he’s about to reply, but he never does, because right that moment he feels something dark and ugly crawl up his spine like a sickly shiver.

He looks around, and sure enough, he sees a man walk by, with a Dark One tied to his back.

It’s only when Niall screams “Zayn, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” that Zayn realizes he’s stood up and he’s running towards them.

He feels that pull again, like an itch in his hands, like he feels the need to confront the Dark One and fight it. He also feels fear cripple his shoulders, and it gets harder and harder to give in to the pull and keep walking, especially when the Dark One turns its head. “ _Zayn Malik_ ” the thing growls, much like it already happened the day before “ _The Reaper_ ”

“What’s going on, Zayn?” he hears Harry’s voice. He feels him and Liam follow him, and he also feels Niall next to him, and Louis flickers agitatedly, shouting _This is the worst fucking idea of your life_.

Zayn doesn’t listen to any of them, and keeps going, feeling like all his braincells are trying to force him to stop and retreat, while the rest of his body screams _go ahead and fight it_.

The white eyes of the Dark One are still trained on Zayn. The spirit doesn’t have a humanoid shape. It’s just a tall, looming shadow, with no arms or legs, and the only thing Zayn can see in the pitch-black figure are the milky white eyes, round and piercing and fucking _scary_.

“Can I help you?”

It’s the man linked to the Dark One who has spoken. Zayn realizes he’s stopped right in front of him, blocking his way and probably staring at him like a creep.

Zayn shakes his head. “No, but I can help you”

He doesn’t know why he says it. He has literally no idea what he’s doing, he only knows he needs to do something, fight the shadow, sever the link between it and the man.

The man frowns. “I know you” he says, his clear blue eyes reduced to slits “You’re that medium. I saw your ad on the internet some time ago”

Zayn nods, and decides to fucking wing it. “You have an evil spirit on your back” he says, knowing that the man is probably about to call the police “You need to get rid of it before it sucks you dry”

The man chuckles. There’s no joy in it. “Son, I have a lot of problems, believe me, but an evil spirit isn’t one of ‘em”

“Don’t you feel like something is sucking away your happiness sometimes?” Niall asks. Zayn repeats the question.

The man’s bold instance falters, and Zayn looks right at the Dark One towering above both of them. The spirit is clearly agitated, its dark frame rippling. Its white eyes go back and forth from Zayn to Harry, and the creature starts to squirm even more, its whole shape trembling.

 _Good. Be scared like I am_ , Zayn thinks.

“Don’t you feel like you’re never gonna be truly happy again until the weight on your shoulders is lifted?” Zayn keeps asking.

The Dark One growls. “ _Stay away from my Alive One, Reaper_ ” it screams, and it’s deafening. Zayn feels _something_ curse through his body, a shiver or a shudder, and his hands are screaming for him to just _grab_ the Dark One and _pull_. Zayn doesn’t, though.

“Oh fuck” Niall hisses “Zayn? Your purple light is literally burning”

Zayn doesn’t answer. He just keeps his eyes on the Dark One and the man.

The man sighs. “What do you want from me?”

Zayn shakes his head. “I want to help you” he just says “My name is Zayn Malik. This is my number” he pulls out one of his ‘business cards’ from his jacket and hands it to the man “When you feel like you’re ready to believe me, give me a call?”

The man is still staring at Zayn like he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but Zayn can see the sliver of understanding and hope flicker in his eyes.

He takes the business card. “I’m Gordon Fray” he tells Zayn, and puts the card in the pocket of his jacket.

Zayn can feel the fear course through his body, but also through the Dark One’s. The creature is squirming and growling and pushing, like it wants Mr. Fray to just keep walking, but the man of course can’t hear it, and the Dark Ones can feed off people, but they can’t control their movements. At least not that Zayn knows.

Mr. Fray sighs. “Have a good day, son” he says, a bit defeatedly.

Zayn nods. “You too, Mr. Fray. You know how to find me”

Mr. Fray nods, not particularly convinced, but he’s taken Zayn’s number, and that’s something. He walks away, and Zayn stays there.

The Dark One, attached to his back, of course follows him, but the head of the creature is turned backwards, to still look at Zayn. “ _Stay away, Reaper_ ” it hisses, screams, Zayn’s not sure.

He knows what he has to do, though. He’s felt the fear of the creature as Zayn talked to ‘its’ human, and he knows how to exploit fear and concern, he’s done it for a living until the day before.

So he grins at the Dark One, and slowly slides an index along his neck in a throat-cutting gesture. “I’m the Reaper” he says “ _You_ stay back”

The Dark One’s eyes become even more round, and it turns away from Zayn’s gaze.

Zayn watches it disappear along with its victim, and only after they’re gone he remembers Liam and Harry, and Niall and Louis.

“Zayn?” Harry asks, tentatively.

He looks at him and Liam. They’re both very pale, and looking at Zayn like they’re not quite sure what’s happened. Zayn decidedly shares the sentiment.

“Jesus, I feel like a freak” Zayn sighs, stroking his eyes with the tips of his fingers.

Harry’s hand is warm and delicate when it squeezes his shoulder. “What happened?”

“You can talk to us” Liam adds “We believe you”

Zayn smiles, a bit relieved. He didn’t even know that was what he needed to hear. “It was a Dark One” he says “It was tethered to that man. It’s just the second of them I see, but the one before it, and even this one, they both knew my name and called me ‘the Reaper’. And I don’t know what the fuck it means, I only knew I felt the absurd urge to fight that creature”

_Yeah, and your whole body was shining like a fucking purple lightbulb. Harry’s too._

Zayn raises his head to look at Louis. “What do you mean, Harry’s too?”

Niall sighs. “You both started glowing, you in your purple and Harry in his blue, but it was, like, ten times brighter”

Harry’s frowning at the mention of his name, so Zayn reluctantly fills him in on what Louis and Niall are saying.

“Have you… considered talking to your mum or dad about it?” Liam asks at last, warily.

Zayn scoffs. “No? Why would I?”

Harry looks at Liam and then answers for him. “Liam might be suggesting that in most movies, psychic powers are a thing that runs in the family, so maybe your parents might know something”

“They never said anything” Zayn retorts.

Louis laughs. _Oh come on, even if they knew something, it’s not like your mum was gonna be like ‘my son, have you perhaps already started seeing dead people?’._

Zayn, despite the blood still rushing through his body at what feels double the normal speed, snorts a laugh. “I’d much rather you were really a voiceless spirit, Louis”

 _It is what it is_ , Louis answers right as Harry and Liam also say the same thing out loud.

Zayn rolls his eyes.

 

*

 

The week goes by pretty uneventful, if you don’t consider the massive amount of Remnants, Light Ones and Dark Ones Zayn spots pretty much whenever he runs into someone.

First it’s the Light One flicking over the cashier at his favourite café. The ball of light is a nice girl named Ellie, who was the cashier’s twin and died in a car accident but moved on when her twin sister, Pamela, finally got over the grief and married the man she loved.

Then it’s a Dark One tethered to a teenage boy, feeding on his sadness and growling at Zayn until Zayn repeats the grin and gesture he used on Gordon Fray’s Dark One.

The Remnants don’t particularly like to talk to Zayn, preferring to nod at him in acknowledgement or even waving at him with a smile before they keep following their alive loved ones through their day.

Grant, the first Remnant Zayn has seen after Niall, has taken kind of a liking to Zayn. Sometimes Grant finds him, when Zayn’s walking by the park and smoking, and they chat for a little while, until Megan shows up and Grant says goodbye to Zayn, following his wife. Zayn thinks Grant is indeed about to find his closure, because the closer Megan gets to opening their bookstore, the more faded Grant’s figure becomes, and the more he smiles.

So, the week is uneventful, except for the fact that everything’s changed.

Another thing that has changed is that Zayn’s days are filled with Harry.

Harry is still dealing with his own grief and sadness, but he rarely leaves Zayn alone, and Zayn would be annoyed if it wasn’t so fucking endearing. When Zayn’s feeling particularly grim, he tells himself that Harry only spends his time with him because he can talk to his dead friends that way.

Except that’s not even remotely the truth, and Zayn knows. Because even when they’re hanging out, sometimes with Liam too, and Niall and Louis are there as well, Harry never asks to speak to them. The only times he does, it’s Zayn who starts it, by laughing at something Louis says or answering Niall’s comments out loud. Then, and only then, Harry asks what they said, and joins the conversation through Zayn.

It’s easier to still think Harry spends time with Zayn because of Niall and Louis, though, because discarding the option completely means being left with the fact that he has no other idea as to why Harry would be with him.

Because Harry has never hinted to liking Zayn, not in _that_ sense anyway, not even once. Zayn knows that even if Harry did, he’s still too wound up in his mourning to do anything about it, but sometimes Zayn wonders if Harry would like him at all, given the right circumstances. Maybe he wouldn’t in any case.

So Zayn shuts up, and doesn’t push it. Because one thing he knows, and it’s that he himself has fallen head over heels for Harry Styles.

“I think he fancies you” Niall declares one night while Zayn is doing the dishes and Harry’s in the living room, browsing through Zayn’s Netflix.

“What do you know about this, you’re a ghost” Zayn snaps, even though he keeps his voice low so that Harry can’t hear.

Niall arches an eyebrow. “Excuse me? I spent twenty-eight years as an Alive One, same as you, and roughly the same amount of time being friends with the poor sod currently splayed on your couch watching _The Notebook_ with his legs open like he’s waiting for you to go and fit between them”

Zayn goes bright red, he knows even if he can’t see it, and flings a dish rag at Niall’s face. He’s immensely satisfied when the combined presence of Zayn and Harry in the house makes the rag hit Niall’s face properly.

Louis comes and goes, although he spends most of his time with Liam, and Niall mostly follows Harry or his own family, but Zayn has become used to their presence in his house nonetheless.

The problem is that no matter what the relationship between Harry and Zayn is, Zayn knows Louis and Niall aren’t _alive_. Sometimes, though, he thinks Harry doesn’t properly realize it, and that’s bad.

Most of the time, Harry seems perfectly content with his friends being spirits and _there_ , because it’s certainly more comforting than resigning himself to the fact that they’re actually _gone_. And Zayn wants to desperately tell him, _babe, your friends are dead and you have to make your peace with it_ , because otherwise, Niall will always be stuck, and part of Harry will always be blaming himself and grieving.

But Zayn doesn’t tell Harry any of that, because whatever links them feels so fragile sometimes, that Zayn is afraid one single pull is gonna break it, and he’ll lose him. Zayn is not sure he wants to deal with losing Harry, much like Harry doesn’t want to deal with losing Niall.

It takes Zayn two full weeks, but eventually he decides to go to Bradford and speak to his parents.

The urge of fighting the Dark Ones is always there, like an underlying pressure, and Zayn wants to know how to deal with that at least. So if his parents know something, Zayn needs them to tell him.

 _I’m going to Bradford to see my parents tomorrow_ , he texts Harry that night.

Harry’s answer is immediate. _Want me to come?_

Zayn would very much like him to, but he also doesn’t want to push all his newly found bullshit on Harry. _You don’t have to_ , he replies.

_Well, babe, as I understand it, I’m involved in this too, what with me being an Amplifier and all. So I’d like to come, in case your parents do know anything._

Zayn sighs and smiles, because he’d seen that answer coming. _Okay then, you’re welcome to come. Was thinking of leaving around late afternoon so we can be home when my baba comes back from work._

 _Your place at 5?_ , Harry asks.

Zayn nods even if Harry can’t see him. _Yeah, sounds okay. See you tomorrow then. Goodnight, babe._

_Goodnight, Z x_

 

*

 

Harry shows up on the dot as usual, in his tight jeans and with a very thought-out playlist he made for the admittedly short half-hour drive from Leeds to Bradford.

They don’t speak much during the drive, but Zayn is perfectly content anyway, because he’s learned to love even being completely silent with Harry. The closeness is enough, Zayn feels.

They pass a woman in her fifties with a giant Dark One on her shoulders when they’re almost in Zayn’s old neighbourhood. It’s the biggest Zayn has ever seen.

“What do you feel, Zayn? When you meet the Dark Ones?” Harry asks, when Zayn can still see the woman in his rear-view mirror.

“Why are you asking?”

“Did we pass one just now?”

Zayn frowns and nods. “How do you know?”

Harry shrugs. “I feel something, sometimes. I can’t see any of it, of course, but it’s like… I feel a shiver? Like I’m cold. And my hands tingle a little”

“Yeah” Zayn sighs “I feel like that too, only it’s a bit more than a little, if I’m honest. Do you think… do you think it’s ‘cause of you being an Amplifier?”

Harry chuckles. “I don’t even know what being an Amplifier means, babe” he says bitterly.

Zayn doesn’t really think about what he’s doing, he just does it. He puts a hand on Harry’s knee, and squeezes. His skin is warm even under the layer of his skinny jeans. “We’ll figure it out, babe” he assures Harry.

Harry nods, smiling a bit more. “Who knows, by the end of this whole thing we might even open an agency”

Zayn chuckles. “Should have told me sooner, I spent the whole day sending CVs to anyone available, since you made me question my morals and I lost my main source of income”

Harry laughs. “Better be poor and honest than rich and lying, my friend” he declares without any heat, elongating his arms and stretching them. His hands bump a little on the roof of the car, and Zayn is extremely distracted by the way Harry’s biceps flex, his weird tattoos decorating his pale skin.

 _This guy’s gonna kill me and then I’ll become a Remnant with the unfinished business of having Harry Styles fuck me into oblivion_ , he thinks.

 _Very funny, now why don’t you make sure it happens_ before _you die, you nitwit?_ , Louis offers.

Zayn chokes on his spit. He hadn’t even realized Louis was in the car with them. _You can fucking read my thoughts now?_ , he asks with his mind.

Louis laughs. _If you’re trying to speak to me through your thoughts, no, mate, I can’t read them. What you were thinking was just clearly visible on your face._

Zayn rolls his eyes. “Your mate Louis is being a little shit as per usual” he tells Harry.

Harry grins, and he doesn’t even ask what Louis is saying. “I don’t know what he’s saying, but Louis is always a little shit” he just declares, his grin still in place as he looks out of the window.

 _I think Hazza can read both our minds_ , Louis says with a mumble.

Zayn laughs. “Maybe we’re both very easy to read” he says out loud.

Harry chuckles, and answers without looking at Zayn. “Yeah. And I can’t even _see_ Louis, so he must be even more obvious than he thinks” he just says, like he’s really listening to their conversation.

“You’re quite the psychic” Zayn grins too.

Harry sighs. “Excuse me, Zayn. Amplifier, please” he says with a posh accent.

Zayn laughs hard, and so does Louis.

 

*

 

Zayn hasn’t even told his mother that he was going to bring a friend, but Trisha is unfazed as she hugs Zayn and then Harry too, scoffing at his polite stretched hand.

Harry stutters a bit while Trisha hugs him, but he hugs her back and closes his eyes. Zayn’s heart hurts a bit at the thought that Harry must not get all the hugs he was used to, since two of his friends are not able to provide them anymore.

 _Your mum is_ fit _!_ , Louis exclaims.

Zayn glares at him, and Louis laughs as he flickers behind them, following Trisha to the living room.

“Thank you for bringing my son home” Trisha tells Harry dramatically as she sets mugs of tea in front of both of them “This one never comes home if not on major holidays”

Harry chuckles. “I’m afraid he’s the one who brought me here”

“He’s standing right here” Zayn says half-heartedly, sipping on his tea “And I won’t have any of this shit”

“Zain” Trisha scolds him.

“Zayn” Harry parrots, with a glint in his green eyes.

Zayn rolls his eyes.

Yaser saves him from Trisha threatening to bring out the family photo albums and Harry looking too excited about it for his own good. Zayn’s baba comes home right when Trisha and Harry seem to have won, and Zayn laughs. “Baba! Never been happier to hear you come home” he shouts.

Yaser is frowning when he comes into the living room. “Zain? What are you doing here? You never come home if not on major holidays”

Harry snorts and almost chokes on his tea and biscuits, and Zayn kicks him lightly under the table. He ignores the squinting, knowing gaze his mother is sending both of them in favour of standing up and hugging his baba. Yaser laughs and almost crushes some of his ribs, then proceeds to introduce himself to Harry.

 _Okay no, your father is even fitter than your mother_ , Louis declares.

Zayn glares at him again as he flickers over Harry’s head. _How can a simple ball of light_ grin _?_ , he wonders, because that’s clearly what Louis is doing even if he doesn’t have a fucking face.

Harry charms the knickers off Trisha Malik as he helps her with the dinner, handing her the right spices before she can even ask for them. She gives him adoring looks as they both busy themselves with the chicken. “I’ve been cooking a lot with Zayn lately” Harry says with an embarrassed chuckle “I’m a quick learner”

Trisha laughs. “I thought he was only living on samosas, to be honest”

“No, sometimes it’s chicken biryani too” Harry snickers.

“I’m still right here” Zayn reminds them, but he can’t help the probably stupid grin spreading on his face.

They completely ignore him, giving him their backs even as they keep working at the stoves like Harry’s spent his whole life cooking with Trisha. Zayn finds out it makes him more hot and bothered than he anticipated.

“So, beta, you like this lad?” Yaser asks Zayn, in a hushed tone, as they set the table.

“Baba” Zayn growls “He’s right fucking there”

Yaser shrugs. “Too busy stealing my wife” he says cheerfully “He looks like a nice lad”

Zayn sighs. “He is” he concedes “We’re just friends, though”

“I don’t think you’ve ever brought a friend home”

Zayn shrugs. “I don’t have that many, to be honest. Hazza is… a new thing. I met him just two weeks ago”

Yaser arches his eyebrows. “He’s really something else, then”

Zayn nods, and he can’t even begin to explain just _how_.

They agree to stay the night, since it’s already gotten late while dinner was cooking. They eat much more than necessary, as often happens with Trisha, but his mother’s cooking is so good that Zayn doesn’t leave even a single bite in his plate anyway.

 _Fuck, this shit looks so good_ , Louis comments, flying over the table. He almost knocks Harry’s glass over, still not used to the fact that he’s more _physical_ when he’s so close to both Zayn and Harry, but Harry is quick to make it look like the glass slipped from his hand when Trisha looks at the source of the small commotion.

“So, beta” Yaser says when they’re done eating, and enjoying an impromptu dessert Trisha and Harry made with strawberries and whipped cream “Care to tell us why you’re really here?”

Zayn rolls his eyes. “Can’t I just miss my mama and baba?”

Trisha arches an eyebrow. “Zain” she just says, sternly.

Zayn exchanges a glance with Harry, who is sitting right next to him, their knees touching under the table. Whenever Harry touches him, Zayn feels like warmth spreads where they’re connected, like the opposite of what happens when he touches the Remnants.

Harry nods at him, and Zayn sighs. “Mama, baba, I have… a couple questions for you. But you have to promise not to think I’ve gone bonkers”

Yaser sighs. “Go ahead”

“Do the words Reaper and Amplifier mean anything to you?”

Trisha’s fork pauses mid-air, and Yaser’s glass slips from his hand, water flooding the table.

Harry gulps down. “I take it you know?” he asks, tentatively.

“Zain” Yaser says seriously “I want you to tell me exactly _how_ you know those words”

Yaser rarely gets angry. He’s not properly angry now, but his jaw is set, and his eyes are clouded. Zayn looks at his mum, and she’s gaping a little, her lips quivering.

For the third time in the past two weeks, Zayn tells the story. He doesn’t give any specifics about Harry, because his grief is his own story to tell, but he tells his mama and baba about Niall coming to visit him, and about the Dark Ones. Then, he tells them that the Dark Ones know his name and call him the Reaper, and that they’ve been told Harry is an Amplifier.

When he says it, Trisha buries her face in her hands and sobs. Zayn is a bit shocked, because that reaction seems quite a bit exaggerated, and because it can mean that Trisha and Yaser know something more about that. Something that is clearly worrying them.

Harry sighs as he quietly rubs Trisha’s back in soothing circles, but Zayn can’t concentrate on that, because right then Yaser grips his arm tightly. “Beta” he says “Your grandparents. My father and mother. They were a Reaper and an Amplifier. And it got them _killed_ ”

“What?” Zayn exclaims.

Trisha sniffles. “We were so sure you didn’t get it” she murmurs “You never showed the signs. Never _saw_. We thought all our children would be spared”

“Niall said that my powers were dormant or something, and meeting Harry awakened them”

Yaser nods. “Yeah, that’s probably right. Your grandparents knew each other since they were toddlers, so we can’t be sure that’s how it worked for them. But their own parents said that usually it does work like that. A Reaper needs an Amplifier to awake his powers”

“What does it _mean_?” Harry asks, not unkindly “Do you know? You said they got… killed?”

“You never told me how my grandparents died” Zayn mutters.

Trisha nods. “We didn’t want to scare you or your sisters, not until we knew for sure you were safe” she replies “A Reaper is someone who has the power to banish the Dark Ones. But he needs an Amplifier to sever the link between the creature and the human. Without an Amplifier, the Dark One would win the fight, and tether itself to the Reaper forever”

Harry looks at Zayn with worry, and Zayn feels Harry’s hand squeeze his knee in a shaky grip under the table. “What… what happened to your parents?” Harry asks Yaser “If you can tell us”

Yaser nods. “My father, Dalir, was the Reaper. My mother Mahira was the Amplifier. They fought the Dark Ones for years, detaching them from people and sending them to wherever it is they come from. There’s only one Reaper and one Amplifier every two or more generations, they’d been told. They felt like they had to use their powers for good” he tells them “But my mother got hurt by a Dark One during a fight, and my father got scared. So he went out to try and fight a Dark One on his own after that”

Trisha sniffles. “She understood what he was doing, and followed him. But by the time she found him, he’d already lost the fight. The Dark One had already tethered itself to Dalir” she explains “So Mahira tried to detach him like she’d seen her husband do so many times. But the thing is that an Amplifier _doesn’t_ have that power. Mahira did manage to pull the thing off Dalir. But she died in the process. And when she did, the Dark One sucked up all her powers, and killed Dalir as well. For all we know, that particular Dark One still roams the Earth”

Zayn feels like all his insides have just melted. Harry’s hand is scorching hot on his knee, but he doesn’t retreat from the contact, because he feels like that’s the only thing that is keeping his body from floating away. He sees Louis and Niall in a corner of the room, both of them motionless and shocked, and Harry’s eyes are wide, so wide, and scared. Zayn wants to wipe the fear off his face.

He gulps down some air. “How did they do it? Fight the Dark Ones?”

Yaser shakes his head. “They never said, and we saw them do it sometimes, but we couldn’t see anything. The only thing we could see, only for a second right when they were banishing the creatures, was this kind of light around them”

“Purple around my grandfather” Zayn nods.

“And blue around his wife” Harry completes.

Trisha’s eyes fill with tears as she nods and cries. “Zain, you have to be careful” she moans “This is dangerous, it’s a curse”

“What if it isn’t?” Zayn retorts, thinking about the immense feeling of power he gets around the Dark Ones, when he sees how scared of him they are. And about the itch under his skin, in his hands, the thing that tells him that he’s _made_ for this. “What if this is my _purpose_ , mama?”

“And mine” Harry whispers, looking at the ground.

 _Oh, fuck_ , Louis comments.

Niall chuckles. “My afterlife has just become a _Supernatural_ episode”

“I knew you were gonna say that” Yaser mutters, massaging his temples with his fingers “Well, beta, if you wanna go off and fight supernatural crime like your daadi and daada, you might want to look into their diary first”

Harry’s whole body straightens at that. “They left you a diary? With info?”

Trisha sighs and nods. “We never read it. But we kept it. Just in case one of our children turned out to be the next Reaper” she says defeatedly “You do the dishes, then, and I’ll go look for it in the basement”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you're thinking :)  
> I am also on Tumblr as wont-you-stay-till-the-am.tumblr.com, come hit me up if you wanna talk.


	3. The Reaper and the Amplifier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zayn leaves them alone. The moment feels too personal, and no matter what he feels for Harry, Zayn doesn’t feel like he’s part of that pain. He can understand it, because it’s a pain you can never fathom unless you live it, and Zayn _has_ lived it, but pain is always so different for anyone that even if Zayn knows exactly how Harry feels, he’s never felt so far away from him anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Usual disclaimer: I don't know or own any of the characters present in this work. I only own the plot and the original characters.

 

 

Trisha and Yaser have converted Doniya’s old room into a guest room, and that’s where Trisha sets Harry up.

Zayn would much rather share his own old room with Harry, but he doesn’t question the separation, because he would look like a fool to both his parents and Harry himself.

The diary looks quite harmless. Just one thick, black leather-bound notebook with the initials D and M embroidered (kinda fittingly) in purple and blue threads on the spine. It’s been retrieved from the basement by Trisha and it currently sits on Zayn’s desk like the Holy fucking Grail. Zayn and Harry decide to read through it together, after both of them have showered.

Yaser asks Zayn if they want him and Trisha to stay with them while they read. But Zayn declines their offer. He doesn’t know what he will find in his grandparents’ diary, but he can’t exclude it’s something he won’t want his parents to know. He has to do this alone, or better, only with Harry.

Harry insists that Zayn shower first, so he does. He takes the quickest shower in the history of showers, and gets out of the bathroom with his hair still dripping wet, a towel in his hand and another one around his waist.

He almost has a heart attack when he remembers he left Harry in his room. Harry is sitting on Zayn’s bed, and his face and neck go a dark shade of crimson when he looks at Zayn, half-naked and wet and wishing a calamity to occur right that moment.

Zayn feels a drop run down his forehead and nose as he tries to smile reassuringly at Harry. “Shower’s free” he announces.

Harry nods, a bit too energetically, and stands up from the bed. “I, um, I’ll see you later, I’ll be quick” he tells Zayn.

Zayn nods too, causing more droplets to fall down his face, and Harry chuckles, grabbing the towel from Zayn’s hand and covering Zayn’s head and face with it. “Whatever we’re gonna find out, I’m sure the Reaper is not immune to colds, so dry your hair properly” he says when Zayn can’t see him from under the towel.

He grins anyway. “I’ll be dry and presentable when you come back”

Harry doesn’t answer, but he chuckles again and leaves the room. Zayn pulls the towel off his head with a sigh.

“It’s painful to watch, really”

Niall’s sudden comment makes Zayn start. He instinctively grabs the towel around his waist to keep it in place. Niall is sitting on the bed right where Harry was a minute earlier, and he’s sporting a shit-eating grin. “You and your mate Louis are the bloody definition of privacy infringement” Zayn mutters, opening his closet and changing into his sweats and t-shirt behind the door so that Niall won’t see him.

 _Or will he? Do Remnants see through stuff?_ Zayn shakes his head and ignores his own thoughts.

“I really think you and Harry should work your own thing out before thinking about all this Reaper and Amplifier business” Niall offers, with a small sigh.

Zayn rolls his eyes. “Our _thing_ is _this_ ” he replies “The Reaper and Amplifier business. There’s nothing more”

Niall scoffs. “Yeah, keep telling yourself that”

Zayn ignores him in favour of mindlessly playing with whatever clutters his desk except the diary. He smiles when he finds one of his Power Rangers action figures under some old notebooks from uni, and when his fingers run along the spine of one of his finished sketchbooks. He should draw again soon. Maybe he can draw Harry. With the dimples and the curls and the smile.

“I’m back” he hears Harry’s voice.

When Zayn turns, he’s not prepared for wet-haired Harry Styles. He’s wearing the t-shirt and sweats Zayn has lent him. The sweats are a tad too short on his ankles, and the t-shirt stretches a bit around his upper arms. Harry’s hair is loose and damp, some drops pooling at the tips and then rhythmically falling on his shoulders. Zayn wants to lick them up Harry’s neck.

He gulps down and smiles. “Alright, babe?”

Harry nods. “Your shower’s huge”

Zayn chuckles. “Doniya and Waliyha threatened not to talk to baba anymore if he didn’t change our old shower to a bigger one”

“Niall always says that our shower is too big” Harry comments casually.

Zayn’s heart constricts a little every time Harry uses the present tense to talk about Niall. He’s senselessly afraid that Harry will just go into denial sooner or later, and ruin his own life for real, not ever being able to accept that his best friend is dead.

“Scares me so much sometimes” Niall mutters, trying to fidget with Zayn’s Power Ranger but not managing to grab it for real.

Zayn sighs. One problem at a time. He can deal with Harry and his feelings some other time, as soon as he knows how to.

Once Harry has closed the door, he reaches Zayn by the desk, looking at the diary on it. “We can go through it together and I’ll translate for you. It’s all in Urdu” Zayn tells him “Do we start from the very beginning or do we skim through it?”

“Let’s read the whole thing” Harry says surely “We can’t let any detail go unnoticed with this, Zayn. Not if it’s so dangerous, especially the Reaper part of it. It looks like your grandfather has written a lot more than your grandmother anyway”

Zayn nods, and retrieves the diary. He sits on his bed, and Harry sits next to him. His body is so warm next to Zayn, and he smells like Zayn’s favourite shower gel and shampoo, and Zayn really needs to fucking _focus_. He feels Niall give them both a smile and then leave them truly alone.

Zayn slides with his ass up the bed, until his back is rested against the pillows and the headrest. Harry does the same, and Zayn opens the diary.

The first entry dates _4 th March, 1980_, and it’s written by Dalir. Zayn starts to read and translate for Harry.

_Mahira and I have decided to start recording what happened and is happening to us, because we had to learn everything by ourselves, and we want to make life easier for whomever comes next._

_The only thing we knew from the start is that whoever is born an Amplifier is random. The Reaper, on the contrary, always has Malik blood. My grandfather Zahid was the Reaper before me. My mother told me that his Amplifier died in the war, and the Dark Ones killed my grandfather the very first time he tried fighting them alone, shortly after my father was born._

_There is only one Reaper and one Amplifier every two or more generations. There’s no way to recognize each other. It has to happen by chance. The Reaper needs to meet the Amplifier in order for his or her powers to be awakened. We’re blind before we meet our Amplifier._

_Mahira and I were lucky. We met as children, so my powers awakened very soon. I’ve never known any different. I’ve always been conscious of walking among Remnants, Light Ones, and Dark Ones._

_The urge to fight the Dark Ones has always been part of me. Mahira feels it too, to an extent. She says it feels like a shiver and a tingle in her hands. For me, it’s more than a tingle, to be honest._

_We banished our first Dark One when we were eleven._

_I’ve always felt the pull towards the Dark Ones, that voice in my blood that tells me to just grab them and pull. Mahira was with me. We feel stronger together, always have._

“Do you?” Harry asks in a whisper, the small bedside table light casting alien shadows on his cheekbones “Feel the need to grab the Dark Ones and pull?”

Zayn nods, his eyes never leaving the words written by his grandfather. “I do” he replies “And I think I also feel stronger when you’re with me. I feel like I’m scared of them, but the need to fight them is stronger as well”

Harry nods. He sighs, and leans his head on Zayn’s shoulder. “Go on”

Zayn tries not to focus only on how their bodies are pressed together, side by side, with Harry’s cheek on Zayn’s shoulder, and he continues translating.

_That Dark One wasn’t particularly big. It was attached to an old woman, back in Ziarat. We didn’t know what to do. But I gave in to the pull, and Mahira held my hand as I used the other to grab inside the Dark One. I felt my hand close onto its substance. Mahira kept holding my hand, and also grabbed the Dark One with her other. And then we pulled._

_It was, still is, like ripping the skin off of someone. The creatures scream, and so does the human they’re tethered to. But when the Dark One is detached, it’s too weak to exist. So it just vanishes, because it can’t attach itself to the Reaper or the Amplifier as long as they’re together._

_They need to be fought, the Dark Ones. Because they feed on people’s problems and despair, and if they feed just enough, they can detach themselves from their humans and roam the Earth on their own, the human dying in the process. We’ve never seen a free Dark One, but my parents say they’re physical, and powerful. They say they can kill you just by touching your chest and making your heart rot, when they’re free. _

“Fucking hell” Zayn murmurs, feeling the need to stop for a moment.

Harry doesn’t raise his head. His hand crawls above Zayn’s, his fingers ghosting over the point where Zayn is holding the diary up, and he sighs. “So as long as I’m with you, you’re safe?” Harry asks, in a tiny voice, and Zayn wishes he could look at him, but he’s still leaning into Zayn’s shoulder, and Zayn’s chin is on the crown of his head, and he can’t see Harry properly.

“So it seems” he answers, trying to smile and pretend like his heart is not coming out of his chest, and that Harry can’t hear it at all in the silence of the room.

They keep going through the halfway-filled diary. There’s not much more info, except detailed retellings of how Zayn’s grandparents banished countless Dark Ones in Pakistan. Zayn isn’t able to even imagine himself doing it, let alone doing it with Harry.

Harry, on his part, keeps staying close to Zayn to look at words written in an alphabet he can’t read, and listens.

They don’t speak for a long moment after they get to the last few pages of the diary, and then Zayn resumes his translation. “The next one is written by my grandma” he says, and reads.

_19 th June, 1985._

_Yaser is so happy that Dalir and I moved to England. He wouldn’t be happy if he could see how the Dark Ones are changing._

“Changing?” Harry asks “What does she mean?”

Zayn shakes his head and keeps reading.

_The Dark Ones are more and bigger here in England. Dalir says that it doesn’t have a reason, but I think it’s just that people are colder here. Less willing to help each other. There’s so much grief in this town. People suffer from depression, lost their children to cancer, don’t have reason to live anymore. It’s the sickness of the first world, and the Dark Ones bathe in it, revel in it._

_I can feel it in my bones, how powerful they are here. They have eyes. They didn’t have eyes in Ziarat._

_Here, they have eyes and they speak. They know Dalir’s name. We fought one this morning. Right when it saw us, it growled and it said “Dalir Malik. The Reaper”._

_They’re still scared of him, and more scared of us. But these ones are more powerful. Dalir said it hurt his hand to grab it. And it hurt mine too. I felt like we were losing for a moment. We’ve never lost, we can’t. Losing means dying for us._

“Fuck” Harry mutters “Your grandma sounds so scared”

Zayn nods. “They died when I was too young to remember them now. But Doniya always told me that my grandma never liked it here. I guess we know why now”

Harry nods quietly against Zayn’s shoulder. It feels so normal to have him there, nestled against his side like they’ve shared their lives and their bed a thousand times already.

“What does this mean?” Harry asks, his long finger pointing at something on the margin of the page. Zayn chuckles, because those are the first four letters he learned in Urdu. “It’s my name, babe. It’s Zain”

“Looks cute” Harry whispers, sliding his finger over it.

Zayn has to physically restrain himself from kissing Harry on his head of curls, and then he keeps going.

_15 th January 1993._

“That’s three days after I was born” Zayn tells Harry “And it’s still my grandma writing”

_Yaser and Trisha say that if they’re lucky none of their children will be a Reaper. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that it won’t be luck if none of them isn’t, because the world needs a Reaper now more than ever._

_Everything is changing. The Dark Ones are becoming bolder. They’re trying to tether themselves even to people who aren’t grieving._

_I got hurt today. I got hurt because there was a Dark One trying to tether itself to Zain in the nursery. I’d never seen a free Dark One in the act of tethering itself, and I’ve never seen a Dark One linked to a child. Children are happy by definition, mostly, and even when they aren’t, they’re too small to give the Dark Ones sufficient powers to grow and free themselves._

_I tried to banish it on my own. I didn’t think. That’s my grandchild, I just knew I had to save him before it happened. I managed, but I was almost dying. Dalir found us in time, luckily, and we banished it together. I swear the Dark One said Zain’s name before going away. Dalir didn’t hear._

_Dalir didn’t hear because he’s slowly slipping away. I can feel it, how weak he is. Mithra says she can see it too, that his purple light is fading somehow._

_Mithra is my sister. She’s a Light One. I heard Dalir talk to her yesterday. I can’t hear or see her, of course. But I heard him telling her not to worry, that he feels fine._

_He doesn’t feel fine. I think the Reaping is consuming him. These are not normal Dark Ones, they’re too big and strong. It’s not supposed to be like this._

_Just in the moment when we’re severing the link between the Dark One and the human, I can see the creature too. And when I saw the one trying to get to Zain, it looked more… human. I saw its eyes shine white, and it had a mouth, and arms. That’s not normal either._

_I think that the Dark One trying to get to Zain means something more. That Dark One **is** something more._

“We can stop” Harry says after they read that paragraph. “We don’t need to keep going for tonight. We can finish tomorrow”

Zayn smiles, because it’s clear that Harry is worried about the sudden discovery that Zayn is even more involved than they thought. But Zayn feels kinda okay, to be honest. He briefly wonders if it’s because his life has gone so upside down in the past weeks that he’s stopped being surprised.

The fact that the Dark One described by Mahira was pointing at Zayn specifically, even though he was just a new-born, has to mean something. His grandma is right.

So Zayn shakes his head. “We only have two pages left” he says calmly “Let’s just get this over with”

Harry nods and emits a small sigh. His breath his warm where it gushes against Zayn’s chest, and Zayn finds the feeling comforting.

_30 th January 1993._

_The Dark Ones are getting organized. Mahira was right, the Dark One trying to tether itself to Zain meant something. He’s a **ruler** of those creatures. They obey him. And the fact that it was trying to get to Zain can only mean one thing. Zain is the next Reaper, and the Ruler wanted to kill him before he could awaken his powers._

_Mahira got hurt when she tried to save Zain. The creature burned her chest with its hands, and now her skin is veined with black, like a disease growing. It’s spreading._

_I’ve been told a thousand times that a Reaper can’t survive a Dark One without his Amplifier._

_But I have to try. Mahira is in no conditions to fight, but the more we wait, the more powerful the Ruler becomes. I have to try, even without her._

“Oh, Dalir” Zayn hears Harry sigh compassionately “He really loved her, didn’t he?”

Zayn nods. “And it got them both killed” he answers grimly, turning to the last page.

There’s only a few lines on it, written again by Mahira on the same day as the last entry they read by Dalir. Her handwriting is frantic, almost illegible, but Zayn manages.

_He’s gone. That stupid, lovely fucker has gone to fight the Ruler without me because I’m dying._

_Well, if I really have to die, might as well die with him._

_This diary is for you, little Zain. I know you’re next, I can feel it in my bones. Learn from us. Protect your Amplifier, and let him or her protect you. We won’t defeat the Ruler tonight, I can feel it in my bones as well. You will have to._

_We love you, baby boy. Grow up. Grow strong. Grow a fighter._

_Dalir and Mahira._

They don’t speak when Zayn reads the last sentence and then closes the leather cover of the diary he feels he’s been holding for days already.

His hands itch. It’s not the same itch to fight that he gets when he’s close to the creatures who killed his grandparents. It’s something he can’t explain, something that tells him this is indeed his _purpose_ , that he wants and needs to choose this just as Dalir and Mahira did.

Use what he can do for good. So that no one loses the people they love to those creatures.

“Zayn?” Harry whispers, and he finally raises his head from Zayn’s shoulder.

There’s _something_ in Harry’s eyes, the same _something_ Zayn feels roaring in his chest. The sense of finally belonging, the weight of what they’ve learned, the weight of what they _are_. “Do you wanna talk about it?” Harry asks, blinking, his lips absurdly pink in the faint light coming from the lamp on the bedside table.

Zayn shakes his head. He doesn’t know what to say.

Harry sighs. “What do you wanna do, then?”

Zayn knows it’s not appropriate, not even a little, and he knows it can fuck everything up, but he does it anyway. “I wanna do _this_ ” he says, in a whisper and a plea at the same time, and then cups Harry’s face with his hands and kisses him.

Harry’s lips are soft against Zayn’s as Harry parts them on a gasp and a sigh when he realizes what’s happening. Zayn doesn’t force the kiss deeper, though. He stays there, not daring closing his eyes for fear that Harry will pull away as soon as he does, but Harry doesn’t.

They slide their lips against each other for what feels like a thousand years.

Then, Harry heaves a louder sigh and his hands start to slide up Zayn’s arms, until Harry’s lightly pushing him backwards. Zayn’s back hits the pillows and the backrest again, and before he can process anything Harry’s straddling him, the kiss turning filthier and deeper. Harry’s tongue is hot and smooth in Zayn’s mouth, and Zayn feels like he’s waited years to have it right there, even though he hasn’t. Harry seems to share the sentiment, because he nods apropos of nothing and keeps kissing Zayn, sitting in his lap where he’s getting hard from just that.

“Fuck, I’ve wanted this for… for…” Harry groans, and doesn’t finish the sentence because his hips buck forward.

Zayn’s breath hitches as he realizes Harry’s just as hard as he his, their erections catching together. Harry bites down on Zayn’s bottom lip, just lightly, dragging it between his teeth and making Zayn shiver bodily.

“Haz” he whispers, and keeps whispering it, because he can’t even believe it’s finally happening, he’s too scared it’s just a dream, because how can a real person feel so fucking _good_ under his hands?

Harry’s real, though, and so is the way he grinds down, pressing their cocks together some more.

Zayn groans and then forces his lips shut, barely conscious enough to remember his parents are in the house. “Had to wait until we can’t be properly doing this, eh?” he chuckles on Harry’s mouth.

Harry also laughs, his tongue darting out to lick at Zayn’s cupid’s bow with just its tip. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want” he says “I didn’t even know I had _this_ left in me. I… I thought my heart died with Niall and Louis” he adds, his movements halting a little bit.

Zayn stills. He looks at Harry in the eyes, taking in the flickering green and the wondering gaze, and then he surges forward and kisses Harry again, so forcefully that he manages to push Harry backwards and make him lie on his back, Zayn straddling him now. “I’ll make sure your heart is always alive, babe” he says, and he means it, means it as much as he means the kiss and the small touches and the fact that he didn’t want Harry to sleep in another room that night.

Harry nods, his hands going to Zayn’s hair and untying his topknot, so that his fingers can slide freely in his hair.

“The first time I saw you I couldn’t believe how beautiful you were” Harry says, arching his neck when Zayn’s lips land on his pulse-point “I still can’t, if I’m honest”

Zayn chuckles. He doesn’t answer, but he doesn’t have to, because Harry sighs and seems to lose all coherent thought when Zayn’s hands reach for the waistband of his sweats, tugging. He pulls Harry’s sweats and pants down, just enough to get a hold of his hard dick, and it feels so perfect and right in his hand that Zayn wonders how the fuck he’ll manage to last a respectable amount of time.

Harry doesn’t seem better off, mewling and panting in Zayn’s ear as Zayn drags his thumb along his slit. Harry’s hands move frantically on his sides, tugging at Zayn’s own sweats with urgent fingers, and Zayn chuckles, helping Harry push down those clothes as well.

They look probably ridiculous, on top of each other in Zayn’s too small childhood bed with their t-shirts still on and their dicks out, but Zayn doesn’t find it in him to care as he begins stroking Harry, eliciting a choked moan from him, which Zayn kisses and swallows.

Harry’s hand circles around him as well, his grip tight and hot and perfect as he tugs at him with his eyelids fluttering. The slide is a bit dry and uncomfortable, and Zayn fucking loves it.

He pants a moan in Harry’s mouth when Harry drags his thumbnail on his slit. “Fuck, babe” he grits out, his hips bucking in Harry’s hand, while Harry is arching off the bed with his lips sealed to Zayn’s to avoid screaming too loud.

“I’m gonna come, I’m gonna come” Harry groans, his long neck bared before Zayn.

Zayn latches his lips to the hollow of his throat, between his collarbones, and sucks. Harry gasps, his hand around Zayn moving quicker to follow Zayn’s own pace.

He feels his orgasm already building, and he honestly doesn’t care if they’re ending up as teenagers giving each other handjobs in secret. “I’m gonna come too, babe” he murmurs.

Harry nods, and tilts his head upwards to kiss Zayn one more time. He bites on Zayn’s bottom lip, harder than the first time, and that’s all it takes for Zayn to come with a grunt buried in Harry’s neck, hot come painting Harry’s (Zayn’s) t-shirt.

Harry lets out another groan, and comes as well, his come mixing with Zayn’s between their bodies.

They don’t move much, after they both come down from their orgasms. They just turn, because their heads are currently at the foot of the bed. They discard their dirty t-shirts and then lay their heads on the same pillow, on their sides, looking at each other with their noses touching.

Zayn runs his finger from Harry’s forehead to his chin, brushing the bridge of his nose and his lips in the process, and Harry chuckles a little, pursing his lips to kiss Zayn’s fingertip.

Zayn’s stomach is doing some funny shit, and he knows he’s completely fucked, but he can’t be arsed to worry about that, nor about the fact they just discovered they’re some supernatural demon-killing team. The only thing he wants to care about in this moment is Harry Styles, lying in bed next to him and chuckling.

“I saw you before, you know” Harry murmurs after a while. Their faces are still in the same position, only even closer, and Harry giggles a little every time Zayn blinks and his eyelashes brush Harry’s.

Zayn’s eyes are going probably cross, but he doesn’t care if it means he’s breathing Harry’s same air. “What do you mean?”

Harry smiles, and pulls back a little bit to properly look at Zayn. “Years ago. At uni. You were taking some master’s in art, right?”

Zayn nods, frowning. “History of art” he says “You were there too?”

“Photography” Harry answers “I’ve seen you a shitton of times, around the labs, and at the café right across from campus after that”

“How do you even remember me?”

Harry laughs. “It’s funny how you think I could ever forget a face like yours” he says “I had a big crush on you. Never gathered the balls to talk to you. Louis, Niall and Liam always made fun of me because I wouldn’t stop talking about your cheekbones and your eyelashes. That’s what Liam meant the day I introduced you two, and he asked if _you_ were the medium. That’s also the reason why I knew how you like your coffee. But I didn’t stalk you, I promise”

Zayn laughs. “Babe, I used to stalk people for a living” he answers good-naturedly “I’m sorry I didn’t see you back. If I did, I would have had a crush on you as well”

Harry sighs. “My hair wasn’t as flashy back then” he grins “Anyway. When I stumbled upon your ad on the internet, I almost had a coronary. But I didn’t call you to flirt, I promise”

“Never thought you did” Zayn answers with a grin of his own, but he’s sincere. Harry looked so wrecked that first day that nobody could have ever dreamt he was in the right state of mind to flirt.

They stay silent for a moment, and then Harry gasps. “Zayn” he hisses “Please tell me we didn’t give each other handjobs in front of Niall and Louis”

Zayn bursts out laughing. “No, Harry, I might be a bit of an exhibitionist but I doubt I could have managed to get that hard in front of an audience”

Harry’s lovely cheeks go red, and he lightly punches Zayn in the chest. “Shut up and go to sleep” he orders, and then, after a pause, he says “Wait. Exhibitionist?”

Zayn laughs even harder, and he really can’t restrain himself from kissing Harry again. Harry goes willingly, his own laugh coming out of his lips, and they just stay there kissing for a while, before Harry speaks again.

“Do you wanna do it, Zayn?”

Zayn knows what Harry is talking about, but he hums questioningly anyway.

“The… banishing the Dark Ones thing” Harry says sheepishly “I feel like we have to do something, since we can. Don’t you?”

Zayn nods. “Yeah, babe. We can go back to Leeds tomorrow and we can start ghostbusting the shit out of those fuckers”

Harry giggles, and Zayn didn’t think he could love a sound so much.

 _Protect your Amplifier, and let him or her protect you_ , his grandmother has written for him.

 _It’s a him, daadi_ , Zayn thinks, _And I think I might just fucking love him._

 

*

 

They haven’t even had the chance to discuss a course of action when Mr. Fray calls Zayn.

Niall is sitting on the couch next to Harry, watching him with a fond smile as Harry tells Zayn about that time when Niall mixed Jameson and Red Bull, completely oblivious to the fact his dead best friend is right next to him. Zayn is enjoying the story, despite the fact that Harry still keeps using the present tense for Niall, and it still keeps worrying Zayn.

Then, Zayn’s phone rings with an unknown number calling, and he answers by reflex, even if he’s taken to not answering unknown numbers because he doesn’t particularly want to deal with people still managing to retrieve his number and call him for his fake medium ability.

“Zayn Malik” he says, though, because he has a gut feeling that this call is important.

He’s still not prepared to hear the defeated, weak voice on the other side of the call. “Mr. Malik? This is Gordon Fray. We met some time ago by Roundhay park”

Zayn widens his eyes, and does the first thing that comes to mind. He scrambles to sit next to Harry and puts Fray on speaker. “I remember, Mr. Fray. Why… why are you calling?”

“You need to get this thing _off_ me” he says, almost shouting “I believe you, I have _something_ on my shoulders. It’s eating me alive, Mr. Malik. I can’t… I can’t find any _joy_ in the world anymore, despite my granddaughter being just fucking born”

Zayn looks at Harry. Harry grabs his hand, and nods. “I can help you, Mr. Fray”

Fray lets out a shaky sigh. “I live in St. Patrick Street 45” he says “Please, hurry. I can’t take this anymore”

 

*

 

Louis joins them with Liam as they walk the relatively small distance between Zayn’s place and Fray’s.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Leeyum?” Harry asks when Liam just effortlessly falls into step with them “How do you even _know_?”

Liam frowns. “Haz, you sent me a text and told me to come”

“I would remember if I sent you a text” Harry retorts “Besides, I would _never_ make you come and join me into something I don’t even have a clue about, and that can be dangerous”

Zayn frowns as well. Louis and Niall are suspiciously quiet.

He rolls his eyes. “You sent him a text with Haz’s phone using the fact that you’re both more physical around both of us, didn’t you?”

Niall winces. “Took us fucking ages to figure out the touch screen”

 _I felt like my Light One batteries were running out_ , Louis adds.

Harry sighs. “It’s dangerous, Liam”

Liam shrugs. “That’s why Niall and Louis called me” he says, matter-of-factly “Neither of you has ever done this before. If it fucks you up, I’ll be there to help afterwards”

Harry sighs again, but after a moment he links his arm under Liam’s, and leans his head onto his shoulder. “I love you, Leeyum, have I ever told you that?”

Liam laughs. “Only every day for the past fifteen years”

Zayn chuckles. “Eh, don’t take that for granted” he comments.

Liam’s face falls a little. “Never would” he just answers, and Zayn kind of wants to kick himself in the bollocks, because _how the fuck_ did he think it was a good idea to tell Liam not to take his friend’s love for granted, when he’s already lost _two_?

 _Ah, fucking hell_ , Louis grunts, and then starts floating in quick circles around Liam’s head, flickering so bright Zayn has to look away. After a while, Liam’s smile returns. “Louis did his thing, didn’t he?” he asks.

Zayn nods. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s okay” Liam waves at him “I know you didn’t”

Harry sighs, and links his other arm under Zayn’s. “Ghostbusters” he sing-songs in a whisper.

Niall barks a laugh. “Oh, Hazza, my Hazza”

They arrive at Fray’s place, and Zayn rings the bell. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, but he doesn’t have time to question it further before Fray opens the door.

He looks infinitely older than barely two weeks earlier. His hair is more salt-and-pepper, and he’s got dark circles around his eyes.

That, and an enormous Dark One on his shoulders. “ _Zayn Malik_ ” it shrieks “ _The Reaper_ ”

Zayn ignores it, but he doesn’t miss the fear in its white eyes when they go from him to Harry. “ _Amplifier_ ” the creature screams.

Harry jolts next to Zayn. He squints, looking above Fray’s head like he’s searching for something he can’t see properly, and Zayn sees the goose-bumps rising on both his arms. He wraps his fingers around Harry’s wrist. It’s like slow waves of barely-there electricity are cursing under Harry’s skin.

 _And they start glowing again_ , Louis offers.

Gordon Fray doesn’t even question the fact that Zayn has brought other people with him. The man just heaves a sigh and lets them in without speaking, leading them inside the loft.

“Posh” Niall comments.

Zayn shushes him even if he’s the only one who can hear him, and takes a deep breath before facing Fray. “Mr. Fray? You might wanna sit for a second” he says.

The man obeys, and they all sit with him as Zayn tells him just a brief piece of info about what a Dark One is. He just calls it ‘the spirit’, not wanting to divulge too much knowledge when he himself knows so little about it still, but Fray seems to only partially hear him.

The Dark One on his shoulders his shaking, shrieking uncontrollably and trying to pull the man away from Zayn, not managing.

“Mr. Fray” Harry says at last “This will hurt a lot. We have to warn you”

Fray laughs unhappily. “Mr. Styles, I’ve been hurting every day for the past five years, since my wife died, and I didn’t even know why. It’s not normal grief, this _thing_ in my chest, is it?”

Zayn shakes his head. “No, it’s not” he confirms, his mind going a mile a minute.

His grandparents haven’t been clear as to what the Dark Ones take into consideration when they choose their victims. They talked about people with problems, people grieving, but everybody has problems and grieves at some point in their life.

 _What if they need the grief of_ loss _to tether themselves?_ , he thinks.

The Dark One itself gives the answer by shaking harder, his screams almost deafening.

Zayn grins. _I’m right, aren’t I?_

They make Mr. Fray stand up. The man’s shoulders are hunched, but when Zayn goes behind him and studies his back, he can clearly see the exact point where the Dark One is linked to Fray. It’s right between his shoulder blades, the dark material coming out like a cursed, gory wing.

The substance of the Dark Ones looks like shadows and smoke, and Zayn doesn’t know how he’s supposed to get a hold of it.

Harry comes right next to him in that moment. “I’m gonna grab your hand, Zayn, okay? Like Mahira and Dalir did”

Zayn nods. “We’re gonna get rid of it” he says, to himself, to Harry, and to Mr. Fray. Mr. Fray nods.

The second Harry grabs his hand, Zayn feels like he’s exploding, and it’s not the enhanced screams of the creature.

It’s like fire is coursing through his veins, that something inside his ribcage shouting _pull pull pull_ , and he finally understands what everybody means, when they say the Reaper and the Amplifier make each other stronger. He can feel it in his bones, like his grandma has written, that he’s been made to stand next to Harry, their fingers linked and their powers mixing.

So he does what he’s read in his grandparents’ diary, and shoves a hand in the shadow.

It looks like shadows and smoke, but it feels like mud. Zayn is absurdly reminded of when he was a child, and he dug in a pool of mud with Waliyha to gather the dirty substance and prank Doniya who was sunbathing in the garden.

The texture under his hand is the same, except for the fact that it’s hot. Not scorching, but not a natural warmth either.

The Dark One lets out a pained scream, and so does Mr. Fray. The man’s whole back bends forward, and Zayn is so startled he almost loses his grip.

It’s Liam who helps. He goes to stand in front of Mr. Fray, not touching him, but smiling reassuringly. “We know it hurts, Mr. Fray” he says, calmly “You have to fight it. Resist, and you’ll be free”

Mr. Fray is sobbing, but he nods, and doesn’t retreat from under Zayn’s hand anymore.

Zayn gets a better hold of the Dark One, and then looks at Harry.

“Don’t let go of my hand, and put your other hand right where mine is, like you wanna grab onto air” he tells Harry “It feels fucking disgusting, I won’t lie”

Harry nods, and does as Zayn’s told him.

He gasps when his hand slides into the Dark One as well. And then, right in that moment, he looks up, mouth agape and eyes wide. “I see it” he says “I see the creature”

The creature in question is looking down at them, its whole shape contorting like it wants to escape from their hands, but Zayn tightens his grip, and so does Harry.

“Pull, Haz” Zayn shouts over the agonizing shrieks of the Dark One and Mr. Fray.

Harry nods. They start to pull at the creature, to rip it off Fray’s back, and when they do, Zayn _sees_.

He sees Harry, lovely Harry in his skinnies and white t-shirt, with a soft blue glow all around him.

Harry sees Zayn too, because his eyes are even wider, looking around Zayn’s body.

They keep pulling.

“Come on, Haz, you can do it” Niall says.

Harry screams, and almost lets go of the creature. Zayn is quick to notice and grabs his fingers without letting go of his fistful of shadows. Harry is panting heavily, but Zayn doesn’t have time to ask what’s wrong, because right then they sever the shadow from Mr. Fray’s back, with a sickening sound of ripped skin, and the momentum throws both of them backwards and the man forward, right in Liam’s arms.

Harry and Zayn fall with their arses on the floor, and the creature vanishes with a last, horrid screech.

Zayn doesn’t relax. Because Harry is still panting, crying even, his sobs coming out in gasps as he frantically looks around. “Haz, babe, Haz, look at me!” he screams, cupping his face “What’s wrong? Did it hurt you?”

Harry shakes his head, tears flowing down his cheeks. “I saw them, Zayn” he moans “I saw Niall and Louis, and I heard them too. Right in the same moment I saw your purple light”

Niall is kneeling in front of Harry now, his blue eyes wide and frantic as he scans Harry’s, while Louis is circling Harry’s chest like he wants to pull Harry’s own pain out of his body.

“Oh, babe” Zayn sighs, and holds him tight when Harry sags against his chest “I didn’t know. I didn’t know you would see _everything_ ”

Harry shakes his head. “They look… good” he says, quietly “You were right. Louis is a ball of light. He’s cute” he adds with a chuckle, even if he’s still crying.

 _Cute my arse, you stupid fucker, scared the fucking shit out of me_ , Louis screams.

Zayn chuckles. “Louis is screaming profanities”

“As usual” Harry comments.

“Um, lads?” Liam calls them “Might need to put Mr. Fray to bed”

Zayn looks at him. He’s standing right in the middle of the room, with an unconscious Mr. Fray in his arms.

Zayn is the first to stand up. He helps Harry up too, and all three of them stumble to the king-sized bed in the farthest corner of the loft, trying to drop Mr. Fray in it as gently as they can.

“You saw them?” Liam asks Harry in barely a whisper.

Harry nods, sniffling. Liam doesn’t say anything. He just pulls Harry in a hug, burying his face in Harry’s neck and sobbing a little. “Is he okay? Is he the most foul-mouthed ball of light you’ve ever seen?” he moans.

Harry cries and laughs at the same time. “Yeah, Leeyum. He is”

Zayn leaves them alone. The moment feels too personal, and no matter what he feels for Harry, Zayn doesn’t feel like he’s part of that pain. He can understand it, because it’s a pain you can never fathom unless you live it, and Zayn _has_ lived it, but pain is always so different for anyone that even if Zayn knows exactly how Harry feels, he’s never felt so far away from him anyway.

“You did good” Niall tells him in a hushed tone.

Zayn chuckles bitterly. “I pushed this on him” he whispers.

Niall shakes his head. “He wants it. Has been wanting it since he got to know what an Amplifier is. I can see it in his eyes” he answers “And if I know that you’re gonna be here to keep him tethered to the ground and protect him, I may just feel ready to move on very soon”

Zayn shakes his head. “He’s not, though, Niall” he almost only mouths “He’s not ready to let you go, look at him. He talks about you like you’re still alive, he’s too comfortable knowing you’re just _here_ ”

Niall sighs. “It’s your duty to make sure he can move on too, Zayn” he says.

Zayn’s whole body gives up. He buries his face in his hands, and takes deep breaths to avoid feeling too overwhelmed by Harry’s tears, Harry’s denial, the rush of adrenaline he can still feel in his body.

He feels suddenly cold all over, and he chuckles, because he knows Niall’s hugging him even if he isn’t looking. It’s the most unpleasant feeling in the world, like someone’s dragging ice cubes along his chest, but Zayn accepts it anyway, throwing his arms over him and staggering a bit when they go through Niall’s phantom body, but just a little, like he’s made of jelly.

Harry and Liam are looking at him, and if they understand he’s hugging a ghost, they don’t mention it. Harry is still sniffling, but he’s also smiling at Zayn like Zayn just hung the stars and moon, and Zayn feels far from that, but he takes it.

They wait in silence until Mr. Fray comes to, ten minutes later. He jolts up with a gasp, and then looks around, holding his breath for a moment.

Then he sighs, a smile on his lips, and chuckles. “Thank you” he says “I don’t feel it anymore. You… you got rid of it”

Zayn nods. “I’m sorry it hurt so much”

Fray shakes his head. “I’ll take that hurt over _that thing_ a thousand times” he answers “Besides, Mr. Payne here helped”

Liam blushes a little bit, scratching the back of his head and smiling.

 

*

 

They’re completely alone when they reach Zayn’s place. “Stay” Zayn blurts out before Harry can even open his mouth “I want you to stay tonight. I don’t wanna be alone and I don’t want you to be alone”

Harry just nods. “I never even thought about leaving” he says.

Zayn feels the rush of adrenaline come back to him just as he opens the door to his apartment, his whole body going into overdrive. Harry must feel the same, though, because as soon as Zayn closes the door when they’re inside, Harry shoves him against the wall and kisses him.

“So fucking beautiful with your hands in that creature” Harry almost growls against his lips, pushing his tongue inside Zayn’s mouth.

Zayn chuckles. “You looked pretty badass too” he concedes.

Harry laughs, and they keep snogging against the wall until Harry’s hands go for Zayn’s belt, unbuckling it and sending it to the floor with a rattling _thud_.

“I want you” Harry says, his mouth tracing paths down Zayn’s neck, while his hands keep undressing him.

Zayn finds himself nodding, just as Harry kneels in front of him, right in the hallway, and then raises his face to look at Zayn with his eyes that can be innocent and filthy at the same time.

Zayn heaves a sigh. “What do you want?”

Harry doesn’t answer. He just pulls Zayn’s jeans down, exposing him, taking his dick in his hand and stroking him a couple of times before opening his mouth and lapping at the tip, his eyes never leaving Zayn’s.

“Fuck” Zayn breathes, his head banging on the wall.

“Be careful” Harry warns, and then engulfs Zayn in his mouth.

Zayn feels already too close to coming as Harry starts to bob his head up and down. He can’t stop looking at Harry, though. He strokes his thumb across Harry’s jaw, Harry’s cheek, feeling himself slide in his mouth. “So beautiful” he murmurs “So fucking beautiful”

Harry increases his pace at that, his eyes never leaving Zayn’s, and then he hollows his cheeks and starts sucking, and Zayn is losing it.

“Babe babe stop stop stop” he pleads, squeezing his eyes shut and taking deep breaths through his nose to avoid coming right that second.

Harry’s mouth lets him go, and Zayn opens his eyes again when he feels Harry stand up and breathe across his lips. “I want you to fuck me, Zayn” he says, low and slow.

Zayn kisses him. He tastes himself on Harry’s tongue and he’s never been a great fan of that, but he is now, because it’s Harry. He nods over Harry’s mouth. “Okay, okay” he concedes.

Harry grabs his shoulders with his big hands and starts to pull Zayn across the hallway and the living room, to Zayn’s bedroom.

They fall on Zayn’s bed in a heap, clothes half-opened and hands roaming over each other’s body. Harry sighs underneath Zayn, his fingers shaking a little as he finally gets rid of the last button on Zayn’s shirt and slides it off his shoulders. He gasps a little when he sees the whole expanse of Zayn’s tattoos, and Zayn smiles as he looks at Harry’s fingers tracing them delicately, like he traced Zayn’s name in Urdu written by his grandmother on the margin of the diary. “You’re gorgeous, Zayn” Harry murmurs “Sometimes I feel like I’m dreaming and I’ll wake up and you won’t exist”

Zayn’s heart thumps a bit painfully, but he fights it by kissing Harry. “I’m real, babe” he assures “I’m real and I’m not going anywhere without you. Even the Other Side made sure of that”

Harry chuckles and tilts his head up to kiss Zayn some more. “I wanna ride you” he says then, giving Zayn a small heart attack “Can I?”

Zayn nods. “Yeah, yeah, of course” he says, unnecessarily, because who in their right mind could refuse anyway?

He doesn’t leave Harry’s mouth as he blindly reaches for his bedside table, rummaging through the drawer until he finds lube and a condom. He retrieves the items and also unhinges the drawer in his haste, making it fall to the ground with a loud crash that startles Harry.

They laugh. They laugh and Zayn feels like a teenager about to have sex for the first time, but he doesn’t really care about it. He cares about Harry, half-naked under him and waiting.

They get rid of the rest of their clothes at record speed, and Zayn can literally hear the blood rushing into his ears as he crouches between Harry’s legs, his dick hard and resting against his lower belly as he breathes raggedly and waits for Zayn.

Zayn moves. He coats his fingers in lube and slowly circles one around Harry’s rim. Harry’s hips buck, and Zayn chuckles, holding one of them as he pushes a first digit in. “More, more, I can take more, Zayn” Harry pleads. His head is reclined into the pillow, Adam’s apple bobbing and curls splayed around him like a halo.

Zayn obliges, adding another finger and eliciting a breathy “Ah” from Harry. He starts to scissor his fingers, stretching him properly and finding his prostate by the time his fingers are three. Every time he brushes it, even just lightly, Harry moans and arches his back, a string of pleas and curses and Zayn’s name leaving his mouth.

“Zayn, please, now, please” Harry sighs after a moment.

Zayn nods. He slowly removes his fingers, and Harry sits up, grabbing his shoulders and lightly pushing him until he’s the one lying down. He chuckles at Harry’s eagerness, and Harry chuckles back, but doesn’t lose any more time in ripping the foil of the condom open and rolling it on Zayn. Zayn’s hips cant forward at some pressure finally being put on his neglected dick, and he’s so hard it’s starting to hurt by the time Harry has rolled the condom to the base, squeezing a little and making Zayn groan.

Harry straddles him, and Zayn helps him by lining himself with Harry. Harry heaves a sigh and starts to sink on his dick, groaning and moaning while he goes deeper and deeper, and he’s so tight Zayn has to close his eyes and breathe through his nose again. “Look at me” Harry whispers, his hands resting on Zayn’s chest which he uses for leverage and he finally fully sits in Zayn’s lap.

Zayn obeys. He opens his eyes, and Harry looks so sinful sitting there, cheeks red and eyes glistening. He’s panting, but so is Zayn. Harry waits for a small eternity, and then slowly starts to rock his hips, engulfing Zayn so tight he sees stars and thinks he’s gonna fly off the bed. He grips Harry’s hips with his hands, hard enough to leave bruises, but Harry doesn’t seem to complain as he just throws his head back and plants his knees into the mattress, sliding up and then slamming back down.

“So tight” Zayn finds himself muttering “So fucking tight, so fucking good”

Harry chuckles, eyelids fluttering as he keeps bouncing on Zayn’s lap. “I’ve never felt like this before” Harry murmurs, and Zayn has to strain to catch the words among his moans “So… so close to someone, so close”

“You can be closer” Zayn retorts, and pulls Harry down so that he’s leaning over his chest, his necklace hitting Zayn’s collarbone as they kiss.

Zayn wraps his arms around Harry’s waist, and starts to fuck up in him with groans and moans coming from both of them. The change of angle does something to Harry, because he widens his eyes and moans louder, so Zayn keeps that position and keeps doing what he’s doing, feeling Harry’s dick pressed between their stomachs. “I’m gonna come, Zayn” Harry breathes.

Zayn nods, and manages to snake a hand in between them, grabbing Harry and stroking him just a couple times before Harry’s screaming his name and coming, hard, painting both their stomachs in come.

He clenches around Zayn and then sits up again, his hands pressing on Zayn’s chest for leverage again, and quickens his pace some more. Zayn has just the time to feel his orgasm approaching before it’s already there, making him come with a loud shout of his own, spilling in the condom.

Harry falls from his sitting position after that, Zayn sliding out in the process. They both wince, but it’s perfect, Zayn thinks when he looks at Harry lying down on his side. Zayn turns as well, to face Harry properly and smile at him. He drives his index finger down Harry’s forehead and the bridge of his nose, to his mouth. Harry chuckles and purses his lips to kiss the pad of Zayn’s finger.

Harry falls asleep while Zayn is cleaning them both with a warm cloth. Zayn smiles, looking at him and thinking that he’s never felt this close to anyone before either.

 

*

 

Zayn wakes up alone, and he panics for a short second before realizing Harry is just sitting at the desk, crouched like he’s writing. Zayn looks at the clock on the bedside table. It’s not even eight in the morning. “Come back to bed, ‘s still night” he slurs.

Harry chuckles and turns to face him. “Go back to sleep. I’ll come in a minute”

Zayn arches an eyebrow, but the curiosity is too strong after a second, despite how sleepy he still feels. So he slowly stands up, wearing his discarded underwear, and reaches Harry, nudging him with his hip. Harry chuckles and turns a little in the swivel chair until Zayn has enough space to sit in his lap and look down at what Harry’s doing.

His heart does some serious somersaults when he sees a new, black leather-bound diary. And on the spine, embroidered in purple and blue, are the letters Z and H. “Haz…” he sighs, a bit overwhelmed.

Harry’s arms wrap around Zayn’s waist. “I’m not as good as your grandparents were, but I did my best” he says sheepishly.

Zayn shakes his head. “It’s… it’s perfect, babe”

Harry sighs. “We need to follow your grandparents’ lead with this, Zayn” he murmurs, his lips brushing Zayn’s shoulder “I think we should write down what we do as well. There’s gonna be someone after us, someone who’s gonna be just as clueless as we are now. And the Reaper is probably gonna be your grandchild or summat. We can’t know _when_ , though. You might be still alive, but… you might also be already gone”

Zayn gulps down some air. “Like Dalir was already gone when I became the Reaper”

Harry nods. “So we need to make sure they’ll have as much info as we can give ‘em. I think Dalir and Mahira’s diary, plus _ours_ , are gonna be enough” he smiles.

Zayn nods too, because he knows Harry’s right. “Did you already write something?”

“Yeah” Harry chuckles “I… there’s not much written by the Amplifier’s perspective in your grandparents’ diary. So I thought I might give some more details. You can write yours, later. After you get some coffee in your system”

Zayn chuckles. “You really know me, don’t you”

Harry nods, and Zayn turns a little bit, to look at him in the eyes. “This is _it_ , Zayn” Harry says seriously “We’re together now. Not only as… as _us_ ” he struggles a bit with his words, waving between their chests “But also as the Reaper and the Amplifier”

Zayn kisses him. “But also as Harry and Zayn” he replies in barely a whisper, on Harry’s lips.

Harry sighs. “Also as Harry and Zayn” he repeats.

 _Disgusting_ , Louis proffers from some corner of the still dark room, where Zayn can see his light flicker with his peripheral vision.

Zayn ignores him, but grins as he kisses Harry just a bit more filthily than necessary.

 

*

 

So that’s how the next few weeks go.

Zayn and Harry (and Liam too, most of the time) look for Dark Ones tethered to people. Then, they gently approach the person, and try to convey their message. If Zayn was worried about most people thinking they’re crazy, he was mistaken. Because most of the time, those people _feel_ that there’s something particularly wrong with them. So they see Zayn and Harry as a confirmation, and they’re always so desperate that they don’t even question it. They just allow Zayn and Harry to do their thing, and they do. The Dark Ones scream and shriek, and they get rid of them, freeing the people under their influence.

Sometimes it’s easy.

Sometimes it isn’t. When the Dark Ones are as big as Mr. Fray’s was, or even bigger, it can hurt. Zayn will feel like the substance he’s getting his hand into is scorching, and it will be extremely hard to keep his hold on it. It’s the same for Harry, he says.

In those cases, Niall and Louis help by spurring them on, and on those occasions, Harry can see them and hear them as well, and on he goes. Zayn and Harry always win, because if they don’t win, they’ll die. They know, Mahira and Dalir have warned them.

But that’s another problem Zayn has tried to ignore, but is indeed very _there_.

The fact that Harry always seems very eager to go fight the Dark Ones, and Zayn knows that it’s partly because Harry, same as him, likes freeing people and likes the adrenaline rush that follows. But it’s also partly because those are the only moments when Harry can see and talk to his dead friends.

Harry is not even a step closer to letting Niall go, though. Zayn can see it in Harry’s eyes, and also in the fact that Niall is always utterly and unequivocally _there_. Zayn has seen how the Remnants change when their alive loved ones get closer to letting them go, when the Remnants themselves get closer to finish their unfinished business. They look more faded, they smile more.

Niall is not faded, and he doesn’t smile that much. He will laugh and try his best to keep Harry cheerful with Louis, but Zayn can see that it’s costing Niall more and more strength and happiness to say on Earth as a Remnant.

 _Remnants are not made to stay forever_ , his grandfather has written in his diary.

Zayn knows it, understands it, and doesn’t know how to address the matter with Harry.

He’s forced to speak, though, after the get rid of a giant Dark One attached to a teenage girl. When they do, Harry sees Niall and they bicker a little bit, and even if Niall is smiling and laughing, Zayn notices just how inherently _sad_ Niall has become.

Harry must notice too, this time, because when they get back to Zayn’s place, he frowns and says it out loud.

“Niall looked… off” he comments as they both sit on the couch with bowls of milk and cereal.

Zayn sighs. “Yeah. He _is_ off, Haz, babe”

Harry frowns deeper. “Why?”

Zayn sighs again. “Harry, we’ve been doing this for two months now” he says carefully “Why are Remnants _here_ , babe?”

“Unfinished business” Harry answers.

Zayn nods. “Yeah, babe”

“We don’t know what Niall’s unfinished business is, though”

“We know, Harry. It’s just that you don’t wanna see it” Zayn replies.

Harry’s face closes a little bit, and it breaks Zayn’s heart, but they _have_ to talk about that before they ruin Niall’s soul, and Harry’s too, for that matter. “I don’t know what you’re talking about” Harry says coldly.

“ _You_ have to let him go, Harry” Zayn says, feeling his chest cave in a little “His unfinished business is that you’re not ready to be without him, and if _you_ don’t let him go, he’ll be stuck forever”

Harry shakes his head. “But… but he’s here! He’s here and he’s okay!”

“He’s _not_ okay, babe!” Zayn exclaims “Can’t you see it? You know him a thousand times better than I do, Harry, and even I can see how his smiles are the only thing that’s fading, while the rest of him is still so clearly _here_ , meaning that he’s not even close to moving on and getting his peace”

Harry gasps and stands up. “What are you saying? That it’s _my fault_ Niall’s stuck?” he screams.

Zayn stands up too, raising his hands. “No, Harry, I’m not saying that it’s your fault, I’m saying that you’re the only one who can finish his business”

Harry shakes his head. “It’s so easy for you to fucking say it, isn’t it?” he asks with a bitter chuckle “ _Let him go, Harry_. I fucking _can’t_ , Zayn! I can’t because it’s my fault that he’s dead, and I’ll never be able to think that it isn’t!”

“ _Easy_?” Zayn screams back “You really think it’s _easy_ for me to watch you blame yourself senseless? Because I know you do, Haz. It’s clear. You can laugh and smile and fuck me, but deep down, you still believe everything was your fault, no matter how many times poor Niall tells you that it wasn’t”

“You _don’t_ understand!” Harry shouts, and he’s crying, and Zayn doesn’t want him to, but if those tears can make him realize how he’s hurting his friend by wanting to keep him there with his guilt, then so be it. “You don’t understand!” Harry repeats “You’ve never lost anyone! You don’t know what it’s like to be so… so _alone_ , and _guilty_ , and…”

“My sister died” Zayn replies, interrupting him and speaking with the coldest tone he’s ever used with Harry.

Now that he’s said it, the thing he never tells anyone, he feels like he’ll never get rid of Harry, no matter how things fare for them after this fight. Because Harry is important, Harry’s the most important person in Zayn’s life, and he _needs_ to know so that he can know that Zayn _does_ understand.

Harry’s eyes widen. “What?”

“Safaa. My little sister. She died when she was four. And it was my fault”

Harry is only crying harder. “What? You… you never even _told_ me you had a third sister”

Zayn nods. “Yeah. I never talk about her. She was four, and I was supposed to watch her. I got distracted. She fell off a slide in the park and split her head open. She died on the spot. And I blamed myself so hard I thought I was about to die too” he tells Harry as matter-of-factly as he can, because thinking about Safaa is very dangerous, it brings out whatever sense of guilt Zayn has always had like an underlying itch in his heart, an itch he can’t and won’t scratch. “I blamed myself” he repeats to Harry “And I did for a long time. Until I came to terms with it. I accepted my guilt and forgave myself, because I realized that’s what my little sister would have wanted. I wasn’t a Reaper yet, so I didn’t see her. But I like to think I moved on and helped her move on as well anyway”

Harry sniffles. “I’m sorry, Zayn” he murmurs.

Zayn nods, and takes a step closer to Harry, but Harry raises his hands and steps backwards. “I’m sorry” Harry says again “But we’re not the same. You forgave yourself, well, then good for you. I didn’t, I _can’t_. And I’m _sorry_ if Niall is stuck because of me, but I can’t help it, I can’t let him go, I don’t want to be alone”

“You’re not alone, Harry!” Zayn screams frustratedly “You… you have me”

Harry shakes his head. He doesn’t answer, but he doesn’t have to. Zayn knows what it means. _I have you, but you’re not enough_.

So Zayn doesn’t fight it, when Harry leaves. He lets him go, because his heart is broken. Broken because he finally managed to tell Harry about Saf, and it wasn’t enough. Broken because _he himself_ wasn’t enough.

Harry goes without another word, and he doesn’t come back.

Zayn cries. A lot, sitting on the couch right where he’s kissed and fucked Harry countless times, riding their adrenaline rush and scribbling in their diary after fighting and winning over a Dark One.

Niall comes to find him, hours and hours later. Zayn is a bit surprised, because he imagined Niall and Louis would be around Harry, to try and comfort him, because Zayn knows he needs it.

But Niall is there with him now, sitting on the couch next to him.

They don’t speak.

But Niall doesn’t leave.

 

*

 

It’s like everything happens in slow motion, when he sees Harry again, three days later.

He’s tried to call him, but Harry has turned off his phone and never turned it back on. Zayn has even tried to talk to him in person, at his place, but Harry has never answered the door.

So Zayn would like to say that when they run into each other by total chance, outside Zayn’s favourite café across campus, he’s happy to see Harry, happy to finally be able to talk to him.

But Zayn isn’t happy, and he doesn’t talk to him.

Because when he spots Harry, he immediately also spots the enormous, giant, looming dark shadow tethered to his shoulders.

Zayn clutches at his chest, feeling cold and fear clasp his heart in a vice-like grip. He stumbles, a string of _no no no no_ cursing through his brain as he leans his back into the wall.

Harry sees him. He stops dead in his tracks, and Zayn doesn’t even have time to really take in how thin he is, how dark the circles around his eyes are.

Because right then, the Dark One on Harry’s shoulders grins, and Zayn realizes what he’s seeing.

The shadow has a face. Its eyes glint, white, and it has a mouth that is curving upwards, like it’s mocking Zayn’s absolute terror.

It also has arms. He waves at Zayn with its abnormally long fingers. “ _Zayn Malik_ ” it says “ _The… Reaper?_ ” he adds in a chuckle, like he can’t believe it and he expected something _more_ from Zayn. It’s a _he_ , Zayn feels.

Zayn nods.

The shadow laughs, and pats Harry’s head under him with another grin. “ _Nice to meet you. I believe you know my human. Amplifier grief tastes like_ heaven _, let me tell you_ ”

Harry’s still staring at Zayn, his green eyes empty and full of tears.

Zayn feels his tears like a punch to the gut.

The shadow laughs again. “ _Oh, I’m sorry, did you_ need _him? Too bad, ‘cause he’s_ mine _now. Back off, Reaper_ ”

Harry shakes his head, and stares at Zayn like he wants to talk to him, but he just can’t.

Zayn isn’t able to do anything. His limbs are frozen, and so is his voice.

Harry turns, and walks away.

 _We won’t defeat the Ruler tonight, I can feel it in my bones. You will have to_ , Mahira has written for Zayn in the diary.

Zayn doesn’t even know how to tell her that he _can’t_ defeat the Ruler, because the Ruler just tethered itself to his Amplifier, his Harry, the love of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm soooo sorry this was supposed to be the last chapter but it's not, there's gonna be another (this time really last)! I can never seem to figure out the chapter length beforehand, meh.  
> Let me know what you're thinking :)  
> Just a little alert: I just had to change my tumblr. So now you'll find me as wont-you-stay-till-the-am.tumblr.com  
> Hit me up if you wanna talk!


	4. Let go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry doesn’t answer for a moment. He slowly pulls away from their hug, to look at Zayn in the eyes again, and then nods. “It’s okay” he says “That’s how it’s supposed to be” he whispers. Zayn doesn’t know why, but it feels like Harry’s talking more to himself than to Zayn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Usual disclaimer: I don't know or own any of the characters present in this work. I only own the plot and the original characters.  
> The final quote is taken from "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold, aka my favourite book.

 

 

Zayn stumbles into his own apartment feeling like someone’s shot him.

_The Ruler_ , he thinks, his heart threatening to come out of his chest. _The Ruler took my Harry._

He scrambles for his grandparents’ diary and frantically reads everything they wrote about the Ruler, although he perfectly knows they didn’t write much, seen that they died just shortly after meeting him.

_The Dark Ones obey him_ , is the only information he can retrieve from the notebook.

His house feels so empty since Harry left. They haven’t really been living together, but they kinda have been anyway, since Harry didn’t seem to like the solitude in his own place and preferred spending his time at Zayn’s.

The house, though, feels empty also because Niall and Louis are not around. They’ve checked on Zayn a couple times after Harry was gone, but now they probably prefer to be with Harry. Zayn doesn’t blame them. They’re _Harry’s_ friends, in the end, not _his_. And they’re not even _alive_.

Which is the very reason he’s lost Harry, and now he knows he’s lost him in more than one sense.

He has absolutely no clue about how to free Harry from the Ruler. Because he knows what happens when the Reaper fights a Dark One on his own. That’s how his grandparents died.

He hears a sudden giggle, and a light flickers in his peripheral sight. “Louis” he sighs.

There’s another giggle. _Nope, you nitwit. Not Louis._

Zayn frowns. He looks at the ball of light, and no, it’s indeed not Louis. This Light One is somehow a bit smaller than Louis, and its light is a bit whiter, like a neon flashing in the dimness of Zayn’s bedroom. “Who are you?”

_Oh, come on. You aren’t even trying, Zayn._

It’s a girl, the voice in his head tells him. She keeps giggling, and Zayn really wants to be left alone. “I’m not in the mood to play games” he tells her.

The Light One starts to flash and flicker, making tiny loops in the air and laughing again. Zayn’s chest loosens up a little bit, and he’s reminded about how fun it was to play with his sisters in the park, how _calm_ life just felt when they were together. All of them.

His breath is cut clean off when he understands. “Safaa?” he whimpers.

She giggles. _I am very offended you didn’t recognize me on the spot, bro._

In the months since he became the Reaper, the thought that his little sister could be around as well never crossed his mind. He couldn’t go down that road, because he was too afraid that one day he’d run into Safaa, only to discover she’s a Remnant, stuck for all those years in-between this life and the next, sad and _lingering_ like Niall.

Her voice is not the same Zayn remembers, it’s not the voice of a four-year-old. It sounds like Safaa might be a teen, like she’s grown up after she died. Zayn has had dreams and nightmares about Safaa never being able to grow up.

“You… you’re a Light One?” he asks, staring at her bright light “Moved on?”

She chuckles. _Yeah, Zayn, I did. I was stuck for a while. It was scary, being a Remnant. But as you told your boy some days ago. You forgave yourself, and I was able to move on after that._

“I’ve been a Reaper for months” he sighs “You never… never showed up”

He can feel Safaa shrug. _You never needed me since you started seeing. You know how it works with us Light Ones. We go where we’re needed. Most of the time I’m around mama and baba. They’re very sad sometimes, they need me the most. You’ve been doing fine. Until now, that is._

Zayn sighs. “I miss you, squirrel”

_I know. I miss you too. Why did you let Harry go, Zayn? You’re miserable without him. So much I can’t make you happy like I do with mama, baba, and our sisters._

“I fucked up, Saf” Zayn moans, burying his face in his hands “I fucked up and I let him go and now the Ruler has him and I don’t know what to do”

Safaa sighs. _You need to summon your friends. The loud Light One and the Irish Remnant._

“Summon Niall and Louis?”

Safaa nods, her ball of light bobbing up and down. _They’re too weak to leave the Amplifier and come see you, now that they spend so much time around that nasty Dark One_ , she replies. _But you’re the Reaper. If you summon them, they’ll be able to come. You need them._

“Why? It doesn’t matter, Saf” Zayn sighs “I’d rather leave them with Harry, so that they can try to cheer him up. I can’t even imagine how bad he’s feeling”

Safaa grunts her frustration, flickering intermittently. _Oh Allah, Zayn! You_ need _to call them! They have_ things _to tell you, they’ve been trying to leave Harry’s side for three days, but they’re stuck with him and the Dark One unless you do something._

“I don’t even _know_ how to summon them” Zayn mutters.

Safaa flies right in front of his face, almost blinding him. _You call their names over and over again, of course_ , she chuckles. _Fuck, Zayn. For being the most powerful Reaper in the world, you fucking suck at it._

“Language” Zayn mumbles. He’s never felt less powerful, to be honest.

Safaa giggles again. _Sorry, bro. Can’t tell me what to do anymore. I’m a free ball of light._

Zayn, despite it all, chuckles. “Yeah, squirrel. That you are”

_Call Niall and Louis. I’m sure you’ll figure out what to do. And, Zayn?_

“Yeah?”

_I’m glad you stopped blaming yourself. It wasn’t your fault, and I moved on thanks to your forgiveness to yourself._

She’s gone before Zayn can even reply, and Zayn’s left alone in an empty house again. He cries a little bit. It’s not really sad tears, but the fact that he’s just gotten confirmation that his little sister is indeed all moved on and happy hits him a little harder than he expected.

He gives himself five minutes, in which he cries about the happiness Safaa managed to resurrect in him although not completely, and about the fact his Harry is somewhere alone, curled up in a ball, while the Ruler feeds off the pain Zayn hasn’t been able to get rid of.

“Niall Horan” he then says “Louis Tomlinson”

He keeps repeating their names until his throat goes dry and his voice hoarse.

In the end, they do appear, right by the window, from where the afternoon sun filters into the room.

They look like _shit_.

Niall is so physical the saturated air around him is barely there, and it’s not a good thing. He looks like a sick Alive One, like he’s dying all over again, like he won’t be able to ever smile again.

Louis is flickering weakly, like a light bulb about to go out.

“Fuck” Zayn breathes.

_Yeah, fuck. What took you so long?_

“I wanted to… let you take care of Harry”

“He can’t fucking see us, Zayn” Niall sighs “It’s not like we could do anything. And now… now… not even Louis can take care of him. Zayn, Harry… Harry’s got a Dark One on his back. It got him three days ago, right when you two fought and he left”

Zayn squeezes his eyes shut, because he can’t bear to think the Ruler got Harry just because Zayn let him go. Just because Zayn wasn’t there to protect him.

He forces himself to nod at Niall and Louis. “Yeah, I know. I saw him. An hour ago”

_It’s not a normal Dark One_ , Louis says.

Zayn nods again. “It’s the Ruler” he answers “The one who killed my grandparents”

Niall hisses a curse. “Okay. Okay, that makes sense. That’s what they meant” he tells Louis.

Louis nods, in the form of his weak ball of light going up and down.

“They who?” Zayn asks.

Niall takes a deep breath. “Okay, Zayn, don’t… don’t freak out. But we have something to tell you. And you might want to sit”

Zayn does without even questioning, although he doubts anything can surprise him anymore by that point. “Speak” he tells Niall.

“We… we saw your grandparents. We didn’t know who they were, but when they told us they were the old Reaper and Amplifier, we understood”

“What?” Zayn hisses “Where?”

_They’re Remnants, Zayn. They’re still here_ , Louis says.

Zayn’s back sags against the backrest of the couch. “All… all these years?”

Niall nods. “They’re very weak. They’re… like me, only worse. Being stuck in the middle all this time mustn’t be fun and games. They have no idea what their unfinished business is, but… after what happened to Harry, and now that we know the Ruler’s back, I think… I think that maybe their unfinished business is defeating the Ruler. Which means _you_ defeating the Ruler”

“Fuck” Zayn mutters, burying his face in his hands “I don’t know _how_ , Niall. I need Harry even for normal Dark Ones. I can’t fight the Ruler on my own. I’d die, and Harry too”

Niall nods. “I know you don’t know how. But… maybe your grandparents do. Maybe they stayed so that they could tell you”

“They never came to me, though. They’ve been here the whole time, and they never came to me” he says, and he hears the resentment in his own voice, and knows it’s not fair, but it’s there anyway.

_Come on, Zayn, don’t be daft_ , Louis says with a scoff. _They’ve been Remnants for_ twenty-eight _years. No Remnant that I know has ever been stuck this long. They… they just vanish and cease to exist, if their unfinished business doesn’t come to an end after a while. The fact that they’re even_ here _means they were so much more powerful than normal people. But it still took its toll on them._

“They’re… not quite themselves” Niall tells Zayn in a wary tone “I think being stuck this long fucked a bit with their heads. But we have to try and talk to them anyway, Zayn. We need to find a way to save Haz”

Zayn nods. “I… I can try to summon them”

“Let’s do it out of the house though” Niall says “Even if they’re weak, they’re still more powerful than any Remnant I’ve ever seen, and your grandfather’s got… quite the temper. He broke one of Harry’s chairs when he got frustrated that he couldn’t fight the Ruler when he was right in front of him”

_Wouldn’t want him to throw a strop and break your PlayStation. We still need it_ , Louis offers.

Zayn, despite that whole mess becoming even messier, laughs.

 

*

 

Zayn chooses the secluded spot in the park very carefully, so that he’s sure no one will pass him by and see him talk to himself while in the middle of a fucking ghost family reunion.

Once he’s all settled, sitting under a tree with Niall and Louis by his side, he thinks about Harry. Zayn would much rather just go to Harry’s place and bang on the door until Harry answers or the door itself falls from its hinges, but he can’t throw Harry in the middle of this without knowing what to do first, not now that he’s bound to be so desperate and weak with the Ruler on his back.

Zayn needs to call on his grandparents first, and see what they have to say. Hoping that they _do_ have something useful to say.

He nods to himself. “Okay” he sighs “I’ll call them now”

Niall nods, and Louis flashes up and down in his own version of a nod.

“Dalir and Mahira Malik” Zayn whispers “Dalir and Mahira Malik”

It takes a long time. So long that Zayn feels like his voice is failing him, so long that he starts to think something’s wrong and his grandparents cannot be summoned.

Then, out of the blue, two lean figures appear in front of him.

Zayn has seen pictures of them, so he has no doubt they are exactly the people he’s looking for.

Dalir is tall, with his hair reaching to his shoulders and curling around his face, like Harry’s, only it’s pitch black and specked with grey. His skin is darker than Zayn’s, like Yaser, but his eyes are exactly like Zayn’s, brown with long eyelashes. There’s crinkles around them, like Dalir laughed a lot when he was alive, although he’s not laughing at all now.

Mahira is shorter than him. Her eyes are black, same as her hair, which is tied in a thick braid cascading on her right shoulders. Zayn can see the long stripes of grey in it.

Dalir has purple light all around him, and Mahira has blue. They’re frantically looking around, probably not understanding why they suddenly appeared right there.

Mahira widens her dark eyes and turns to Dalir. “Who’s this? What’s happening?” she asks her husband, in Urdu.

Dalir doesn’t reply. He keeps his eyes trained on Zayn, suspicious, like he’s waiting for Zayn to attack him or something.

Zayn smiles. “Daadi. Daada. It’s me. Zain” he says, in Urdu as well.

Dalir’s honey-coloured eyes widen. “Zain?” he exclaims “Our… _grandson_?” he adds. His English sounds foreign and broken, but Zayn appreciates his effort of using a language he must know is Zayn’s first.

Zayn nods again. “It’s nice to meet you” he says, calmly and with his smile still in place. He would just like to drown them in questions first thing, but they seem very agitated and _scared_ , and Niall told Zayn that they’re not quite in their right mind, so Zayn doesn’t want to push it.

Mahira giggles. “Who’s Zain?” she asks Dalir.

Zayn’s heart sinks. “You… you don’t remember me?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t remember anything most of the time” she says “I feel like I’ve been born like this, never been an Alive One”

Dalir sighs. He slowly extends his hand, grabbing Mahira’s. Zayn stares at the point where their purple and blue lights mix, and when they do, Mahira gasps. “Zain” she utters “Oh, meri jaan. You look so much like your father” she adds, kneeling in front of Zayn and cupping the side of his face with her hand.

The cold Zayn feels spreading in his whole face is so much stronger than whatever other Remnant has touched him. Zayn fights the bodily shiver with all his strength.

Dalir kneels too. “We are… damaged, Zain” he says “Touching each other brings us some of our stability”

_That explains why she didn’t remember him and then she suddenly recognized him once you grabbed her hand_ , Louis says.

Mahira jolts, probably surprised to hear another voice, and the movement makes her hand slip from Dalir’s. She looks at Louis and gapes. “Oooh” she coos, and tries to touch him “Pretty”

Zayn has to hold back a snort at the string of curses Louis lets out at that. Louis lets Mahira pet him like a dog anyway, and when Zayn arches an eyebrow, he flickers more brightly. _What?_ , he spats, _It feels good when Amplifiers touch us. Like someone petting your hair or summat. Fuck off_ , he adds.

Zayn chuckles, and so does Dalir. Zayn’s grandfather takes his wife’s hand again, and her eyes immediately go more vigilant.

“This is gonna be harder than I imagined” Niall mutters.

Zayn hears him, but he ignores him in favour of keeping his eyes on his grandparents. “Daadi, daada. I have to ask you for some information, if that’s okay. I need it to save my Amplifier. Harry”

_The man I love_ , he doesn’t say.

Mahira blinks. “Harry? Harry Styles?”

Zayn nods, and his grandmother gasps. “Oh, Zain” she moans “He… he’s been taken. By the Ruler. We… we were roaming the Earth, so far from here. And then we just _felt_ the Ruler coming back, too close to you. So we found ourselves in this town, but we were not with you. We were with _him_. The Ruler. And your Amplifier was there as well”

“I know” Zayn replies “I know, and I need you to tell me how to save him. How to defeat the Ruler once and for all”

Mahira sighs. Dalir grabs one of Zayn’s knees and squeezes it. It’s as cold as a fucking freezer. “We died trying to destroy him”

“You died because you weren’t together, not really” Zayn retorts “You tried to take him down on your own” he looks at Dalir “And you tried to get him off Dalir on your own” he darts his eyes to Mahira “You both died because you were on your own”

They don’t answer for a while. Zayn looks at them while they look at each other, and gives them time to elaborate an answer, hoping that it’s something he can work with.

“I’m sorry you died because of me” Dalir tells Mahira, pain clearly visible in his eyes.

Mahira shakes her head, smiling. “It’s fine. We were meant to be together until the end anyway”

_Oh, Jesus_ , Louis laments, _this is all very moving, but we need to fucking save Harry before that thing kills him as well._

His outburst startles Zayn’s grandparents again, and their hands disconnect.

Mahira giggles. “The most powerful Reaper in the world” she says proudly, stroking Zayn’s cheek with her ice-cold thumb.

“What?” Zayn sighs, defeated. He’s beginning to think this was completely useless.

Dalir grunts. He’s grabbing the grass by his sides with his fists, and Zayn can clearly see the sudden anger in his gaze, and how smoke is coming from in between his fingers, like he’s slowly burning the grass. “We died because we weren’t powerful enough” Dalir grits out, his voice sounding broken and wrong.

Zayn’s quick to cover his grandfather’s hands with his own. Dalir lets go of the grass threads, leaving two blackened holes there, and Zayn sighs again, carefully joining Dalir’s and Mahira’s hand again.

They gasp, and regain lucidity. “Daada?” Zayn asks warily “What were you saying? About you not being powerful enough?”

Dalir shakes his head. “It’s just a legend. It’s like, a Messiah for Reapers” he says “They say that the Ruler can only be destroyed the day one Reaper will come, a Reaper that is a descendant of _both_ a Reaper _and_ an Amplifier. The Great Reaper”

Zayn’s heart does something quite painful in his ribcage. “Like… like _me_? I’m your descendant. You two are a Reaper and an Amplifier, and you had children”

Mahira smiles. “Yeah, Zain. You. You’re the most powerful Reaper in the world” she says, her voice particularly soft.

Zayn thinks back to what Safaa has also said. _Fuck, Zayn. For being the most powerful Reaper in the world, you fucking suck at it._

He nods. “So I can take the Ruler down?” he asks “Even if he’s… tethered to Harry?”

Dalir shakes his head. “Being the Great Reaper is not enough. You need _more_ than just your Amplifier, Zain. It’s just a legend because it could _never_ happen. The legend says that you would need a Great Reaper, an Amplifier who is still living the very great loss against which he should fight, a Remnant who doesn’t want to leave, and a Light One who died as a child”

Many things happen once the ‘legend’ leaves Dalir’s mouth.

Louis howls a laugh so loud that Zayn is sure can be heard even by the Alive Ones.

Niall starts to cry, his face buried in his hands and his shoulders shaking.

Zayn’s mouth opens in a grin so wide that his grandparents probably think _he’s_ the one who’s gone bonkers, because they stare at him and blink while Zayn keeps grinning and his heart keeps hammering its way out of his chest.

_We can do this we can do this we can do this_ , his brain keeps screaming.

“Do I _only_ need those?” Zayn asks them, his voice shaking, although not has hard as his hands.

Mahira sighs. “ _Only_ , Zain? It’s… it’s impossible. That’s why we tried anyway. We knew the Ruler is never going to be defeated through the legend. It can’t happen” her mouth tilts down in a sad frown “And that means that the Ruler _cannot_ be defeated. We failed. We always will”

Zayn feels his stomach churn at the resigned expressions on his grandparents’ faces, but despite it all he can’t avoid smiling again. “But say that I can find those things. Is that it? Do I take down the Ruler like I take down every other Dark One, then?”

Dalir nods.

_So now we just need to find a Light One who died as a child_ , Louis says.

Zayn chuckles. “I got that one covered as well, Lou” he says “But… I need to go to Harry first”

 

*

 

When they get to Harry’s house – all of them, Dalir and Mahira included, although they seem to have used all the wits they had left to talk to Zayn, because they’re blabbering endless nonsense now – Zayn sees Liam sitting on the stairs, under the porch, holding his head in his hands.

_Ah, fucking hell_ , Louis sighs, and quickly flies towards Liam, to try and cheer him up, probably.

“Oh” Mahira pouts “Pretty light is gone”

“Don’t worry” Niall tells her, patting her on the shoulder (his hand goes right through her) “He’ll come back, we’re all together now”

Dalir frowns. “Alive One” he says, looking at Liam “Has to go away. We protect Alive Ones. Dangerous. Dangerous” he adds, his hands shaking and the air around him boiling.

Zayn sighs. “Daada. It’s okay. Liam is a friend. He knows” he gently says.

Dalir gasps. “He _knows_? It’s a secret!”

“Worst secret in the world” Mahira confirms with a nod.

Zayn rolls his eyes, feeling the impatience bubble up in his chest. Harry’s fucking _there_ waiting for him, he doesn’t have time to babysit his dead grandparents. “Well, I’m going on what you left me in your diary, and you never said it was a _secret_ ” he points out, feeling a bit guilty for being disrespectful to them anyway.

Mahira giggles. “Bad attitude” she comments “Just like my baby Yaser”

“Yaser” Dalir sighs with a smile “Did he marry the cute girl? The Irish one?”

Zayn snorts. “Yeah, daada, he did. You were there for their wedding, remember?”

“Oh” they both frown.

Zayn sighs. “It’s okay, you will remember if you hold hands” he says, showing a calm he doesn’t feel.

They obey him, though. And, sure enough, as soon as their hands join, their eyes stop being so glazed over. “Zain, you have to be careful” Mahira warns him “I… I can _feel_ him. He’s in there”

Zayn nods. He can feel it as well, in his bones like his grandma has written in the diary a thousand times. It’s like there’s a cloud covering Harry’s house, electricity coursing through the air and finding its way to Zayn’s hands, a constant pull of _fight fight fight pull pull pull_.

He has to bury his fighting instincts for now, though. Because until Harry understands, until Harry helps him, caving in to his instincts can mean letting them all die. Zayn can’t allow it.

“Liam?” he says, joining him at the stairs.

Liam looks like he hasn’t had a decent night of sleep in days, although Louis’s presence makes him better, as usual. “Zayn” he sighs, like he’s relieved. Zayn doesn’t know if he should really feel relieved, though.

“Is… is Harry in there?” Zayn asks, looking at the windows. Everything looks dark inside the house, despite it being only noon.

Liam nods. “He’s in there. But he… he won’t let me in. Everything looks dark, but I heard movements, I know he’s in there. He’s not answering his phone, or the door for that matter. What happened, Zayn?”

Zayn tells him, trying to ignore his grandparents’ protests. Liam needs to know, because he’s the only friend Harry has left. Zayn doesn’t know if he can count himself among Harry’s friends, not anymore since their fight. A fight that feels so petty now, compared to the dark shadow hovering over his shoulders.

Liam curses and cries a little when Zayn tells him about the Ruler. Zayn is quick to hug him, even before Louis shouts at him to do exactly that because he _can’t_. Liam sobs a little on his chest, but then his own strength and Louis’s power makes him sniffle and tilt his jaw. “You’ll save him, right?” he asks Zayn, in a tone that means he’s not taking no for an answer.

Zayn doesn’t want to say no anyway. “Yes” he assures “I will”

Liam nods. “How are we gonna get in?”

It’s Niall who answers, with a grin. It’s weak, because Niall is still so _off_ , but it’s there, and it makes Zayn heave a relieved sigh. “You’ll break into my own house, with my help” he declares.

A moment later, Niall has disappeared through the door. Zayn, Liam and all their team of misfit ghosts wait, until Zayn starts to hear a rattling noise. When he looks down at the handle of the door, it’s shaking.

“Oh, fuck” Liam hisses “Zayn, is it… is it Niall?”

Zayn smiles. “Yeah” he confirms.

Liam shakes his head and strokes his face with his palm. “Sometimes I still can’t believe it”

“Mistrusting Alive One” Mahira offers “But he’s… how do you say it in English? Fit”

Dalir lets out a growly grunt. “I’m your husband and I’m right here”

Mahira scowls. “Are you? I don’t remember”

Zayn feels his stomach churn, and he turns to look at his grandparents. He frowns when he sees they’re still holding hands. Why doesn’t his grandma remember if they’re connected? Are they beginning to really fade?

Mahira grins a moment later. “Oh, I’m _joking_! Takes more than the bloody Ruler to make me forget your sorry arse” she tells Dalir.

Dalir arches an eyebrow, but he’s smiling. “What a little shit you always are”

Zayn sighs and curses under his breath. “Wasn’t funny” he mutters.

Mahira giggles. “So broody all the time. Must take it from your grandpa” she comments, a bit too cheerfully, but Zayn finds out he doesn’t really mind.

The door clicks a second later, and when it opens, Zayn sees a panting Niall behind it, dropping a pair of keys on the ground like it took all his strength to hold them, which is probably the truth. The saturated air around him is just a thin sliver. “Fuckin hell” Niall gasps “I think I almost died. Again. For good”

“You’re amazing” Zayn smiles as he, Liam and the rest of the ghosts come inside.

Harry’s living room is deserted. Zayn sees a broken chair, remembering what Niall said about Dalir smashing Harry’s chair in frustration, and thinks that his grandfather must really be a powerful Remnant, to be able to cause such a _physical_ damage when Harry and Zayn were not even close.

There’s no sign of Harry in the room.

_Bedroom_ , Louis says.

Zayn nods. “Stay… stay here? Please?” he asks them all, but specifically Liam, because he’s the most defenceless of them all.

Liam must understand, because he nods. “I’ll… I’ll be here on the couch. I’ll entertain your grandparents, my friend and my boyfriend by talking to them without being able to hear any of their answers” he says, chuckling nervously.

Louis laughs and circles Liam’s head. His light is still a bit faded, Zayn thinks. _I love you so fucking much, Leeyum_ , Louis murmurs.

“He loves you so fucking much” Zayn repeats, because he knows Liam needs it, and Louis too.

Liam smiles a bit more genuinely, and nods, going to sit on the couch.

Zayn takes a deep breath, and climbs the stairs to Harry’s bedroom.

The corridor upstairs is even darker, because there’s only one window on the other side of it, so not even the sunlight from outside manages to enter. Zayn hasn’t ever been to Harry’s place, because Harry always prefers to stay at Zayn’s. So now Zayn steps tentatively forward, opening the door to a first room, which reveals itself to be the bathroom, and a second, which is clearly Niall’s room, because it’s empty and looks a bit unlived, like its owner has been away for a long time.

The third door, then, must be Harry’s room. Zayn’s heart threatens to come out of his chest as he opens it, because not even a sound comes from behind it, and what if Harry’s already… _gone? Dead?_ Zayn’s not sure he can ever survive Harry’s death. His Amplifier, his Harry, the man he loves.

“Harry?” he asks as he finally steps into the room.

Harry’s there, and he’s alive, breathing raggedly as he lies on his bed, curled up in a ball.

The Ruler is there as well. He grins at Zayn, and Zayn sees him, the colossal shadow of him, with his glinting white eyes and the gory slash of his mouth. His long arms are elongated downwards, petting Harry’s hair like he’s a fucking dog. Harry’s hair doesn’t move under his touch.

Harry’s facing Zayn from the bed. His eyes widen a little bit, but he doesn’t move and doesn’t speak, just keeps being curled up on his side, hugging a pillow close to his chest, two tears rolling down his nose when he blinks.

Just as he felt something in his chest break the night Harry went away, Zayn feels something slowly mending itself as soon as their eyes meet.

“Harry” Zayn sighs, moving forward.

“ _Nah-ah_ ” the Ruler tuts with a mocking tone “ _Never said you could touch my human, now, did I, Reaper?_ ” he mocks Zayn’s ‘title’ again, with another disgusting grin. Zayn can see his teeth as well, black and gruesome like his mouth is full of tar.

Zayn needs to be strong. His fear his almost something physical, crippling him and pressing down on his shoulders, but he can’t let the Ruler know, because it would mean letting him win already. “I’m the Reaper” he says to the shadow “You might tell your _subjects_ what to do, but you can’t tell _me_ ”

Harry frowns, but he doesn’t ask any questions. Zayn wonders if Harry _knows_ , if he understands what’s happening to him, if he _feels_ the weight on his shoulders like all the other Alive Ones feel when they’re victims of the Dark Ones.

Zayn takes another step, and to his utter delight, he finally feels the Ruler falter a little bit. His eyes grow a bit wider, and his horrifying mouth closes. “ _Back off, Reaper_ ” he growls then.

Zayn grins. “ _You_ back off” he says.

He knows how to do this, he’s read about it in Dalir’s reports about the Dark Ones. The Reaper can block his sight of the shadow creatures, can decide whether he wants to see them or not for a while. Zayn has never felt the need to block his sight before, because much like his grandpa, he’s always felt like he _needs to see_ , needs to know exactly how dangerous and _present_ those creatures are.

But right now, he only needs to see Harry. He needs to get rid of the Ruler, just for a little while, so that Harry can have his undivided attention, so that he can try and _pull_ Harry out of this state.

Zayn closes his eyes. He concentrates on Harry, on anything except the creature. _Leave me alone with him, get the fuck out of my sight_ , he thinks, hard, so hard his eyes start to hurt a little bit.

When he finally opens them again, he can still feel the Ruler there, but he’s not seeing him.

Just Harry, just Harry.

“Harry” Zayn sighs for the third time, and closes the distance between them.

Harry bursts into tears. He rolls on his back and stretches his arms out, like he wants Zayn to hug him. So Zayn does.

He leans over Harry, feeling how cold and _weak_ he is, and pulls him up, wrapping his whole body around him, pressing him into his chest. Something just pops inside Zayn’s chest, like a hand has suddenly and finally let go of his heart, and Harry cries with his face buried in his neck, gripping Zayn just as tightly, although his hold is weak as well.

“I’m sorry” Harry sobs “I’m sorry I went away. I wanted to come back. But I couldn’t. I feel so… so _broken_ , Zayn, it’s like my pain is sitting on my shoulders all the time and pushing me down, _pushing pushing pushing_ , and I don’t know what it is, it was the same a few hours ago when I saw you, I just wanted to run and hug you and kiss you but I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak…” his voice breaks, and so does Zayn’s heart.

Zayn takes a deep breath. “It’s okay, babe, it’s okay” he murmurs with his lips on Harry’s hair, which is greasy and damp with sweat, and Zayn has never loved it more anyway “You said you don’t know what it is. But you know, Haz, babe. You _know_ ”

Harry’s breath hitches, and he removes himself from Zayn, just enough to look at him in the face. “A… A Dark One?” he frowns “That’s… that’s impossible, Zayn. Dark Ones can’t tether themselves to an Amplifier as long as…” he cuts himself short, his breath hitching again.

Zayn nods. “As long as they’re with their Reaper” he says grimly “But we weren’t together, weren’t we? It’s not something physical, Harry. We can be apart and be _together_ anyway. But the night you went away, you… didn’t you feel like something was _breaking_ in your chest? Because I did. Our bond, or whatever it is, it weakened”

Harry chuckles. It’s bitter and sad, and Zayn hates it. “ _Everything_ broke inside of me that night, Zayn” he whispers “That… that’s why a Dark One got me?”

Zayn nods. “Not just a Dark One, babe. It’s… it’s the Ruler”

“W-What?” Harry moans. His hand instinctively goes behind his own back, like he wants to _feel_ where he’s linked to the Ruler, but Zayn knows it’s useless. It doesn’t work unless Zayn grabs a hold of the creature first. And he wants to, so much, he can feel it just as much as he can feel the shrieks of the creature in the back of his mind, scared that Zayn and Harry will be able to _do_ something.

The fucker doesn’t know _how much_ they _can_.

“I’m fucked, aren’t I?” Harry murmurs, his forehead leaning on Zayn’s collarbone “I’m fucked. I’ve been so fucking stupid, Zayn, and I’m not even talking about making myself Dark One bait. I was stupid because I let _you_ go. I preferred keeping my pain and losing you, rather than the other way round. And I’m not ready, I’m still not ready, but I’m not ready to lose you either”

Zayn wraps his arms tighter around Harry’s middle. “This is an issue for another time, babe” he tells him, gently “I… I know how to defeat the Ruler. I… had some help. We can _do_ this, Haz”

Zayn hears the anguished screams of the creature itself, but since he blocked him, it’s like they’re muffled, like the Ruler is gagged or something. Zayn revels in the frustration of the Dark One.

“How? Tell me, Zayn. Let’s do it now. Get this fucking thing off me, it’s killing me” Harry moans, his wide green eyes bloodshot and pleading.

Zayn nods. “We will, babe, we will. In a while. You’re so fucking weak, Harry, you need some more strength before we attempt something so dangerous. I won’t lose you. Not to him, not to anything”

Harry doesn’t answer. He just stares at Zayn for the longest of seconds, and then cups his jaws with his hands. “Can I kiss you, Zayn?” he asks, like it’s physically hurting him not to “I missed you so much, it’s like you took a piece of my heart and I’ll never be complete without you”

Zayn chuckles. “That’s cheesy” he comments.

Harry chuckles too. It’s weak and short, but it’s there, it’s _something_ , and Zayn will take anything now.

He kisses Harry. It’s not a hungry kiss, not particularly passionate, and Harry doesn’t drag Zayn’s bottom lip between his teeth the way Zayn likes. And yet, to Zayn it feels like the best kiss they’ve ever shared, a kiss that says _I won’t let you go again_ and _I’m complete now_ and _I’ve missed you_ and _I’m sorry_.

“My breath must be terrible, I’m sorry” Harry mutters when their lips separate again.

Zayn chuckles. “I didn’t choose you because your breath usually smells like daisies”

“Hey” Harry pouts a little bit, and Zayn can’t fucking believe it, that just a kiss made Harry be so _himself_ again, and neither does the Ruler, apparently, because the creature is screaming and squirming with all his might.

Zayn looks up, where he doesn’t see him, but knows he’s here. “You’re right to be scared” he tells the Ruler “’Cause we’re about to fucking kill you, and there’s nothing you can fucking do”

The Ruler, of course, can’t answer when he’s blocked, but Zayn feels his fear anyway.

Harry, with his face in Zayn’s neck again, chuckles a little. “I missed your sexy Reaper voice as well” he whispers.

Zayn laughs. “Come on, babe. I’ll run you a warm bath. And then we’ll put some food in your belly”

Harry frowns. “We?”

“Liam’s downstairs, of course” Zayn smiles “And half of my dead family as well”

Harry frowns deeper. “What the fuck do you…”

Zayn kisses him again, just because. “Long story” he interrupts Harry “I’ll tell you while we take a bath and use that blueberry bath bomb you bought last week”

Harry giggles weakly, but again, it’s _something_.

 

*

 

“What did you do? These three days we were apart?” Harry asks, in barely a whisper.

They’re in the bathtub, with warm water covering them both up to their shoulders, and Harry is sitting between Zayn’s legs, his back moulded against Zayn’s chest.

Zayn sighs. “Nothing, babe. I wasn’t able to do shit without you” he admits “Except… after I saw you again, some hours ago, in the street, and I saw the Ruler on your back”

“You looked so scared” Harry murmurs, sliding his fingers through Zayn’s, and leaving them there, entwined.

Zayn nods. “I was. You looked… _lifeless_. I really thought that I lost you, and I couldn’t do anything to save you. So I ran, because you didn’t look like you could handle talking to me”

“I… I couldn’t. I felt so powerless, so _crushed_. Now I know why” Harry exhales “How… how did you learn how to fight the Ruler?”

Zayn tells him. He tells him about summoning Niall and Louis, tells him how he then understood he had to summon his grandparents, who are still Remnants and waiting for the Ruler to be defeated so that they can move on. Zayn tells Harry everything he came to know from Dalir and Mahira, everything they didn’t have time to write before dying.

Only when he mentions the Light One who died as a child does Harry address the big elephant in the room between them. Harry, same as Zayn, knows that maybe it’s not wise to reveal all their cards when the Ruler is listening, but Zayn is sure Harry _understands_ anyway.

“Do you… wanna talk about her?” is the only thing Harry asks, after a couple minutes of silence. He probably just needs Zayn to say it, out loud, now that they’re back together for real.

And Zayn himself needs to tell Harry out loud as well. “My little sister. Safaa” he says “She… she came to me. Shortly after I saw you, this morning. She’s the one who told me Niall and Louis were stuck here with the Ruler and I needed to actually summon them”

Harry heaves a big sigh. He then sloshes around a little bit, sending sprays of water out of the bathtub as he turns to face Zayn. He sits in his lap, his legs tight around Zayn’s waist, and looks at him with his wide, green eyes. Zayn can feel the Ruler looming over their conversation and closeness, but he ignores his presence in favour of staring back at Harry.

Harry sighs, blinking three times and setting his palms on Zayn’s chest, like he wants to feel his heart while they speak. “Does she… is she okay?” he asks “Moved on and all? She must be, if she’s a Light One?”

Zayn nods. “She’s okay. Her voice sounds like she… like she grew up” he says, and his voice breaks without any warning.

Harry pulls him closer, hugs him like he’s afraid Zayn will fall out of the bathtub despite them being still seated in it. Zayn feels a bit like he is indeed falling.

“She said that she was a Remnant for a while” Zayn sniffles. He feels the tears coming, and doesn’t fight them, because he knows Harry’s there to catch him, despite their current situation. “And that she moved on when I forgave myself” he adds.

Harry doesn’t answer for a moment. He slowly pulls away from their hug, to look at Zayn in the eyes again, and then nods. “It’s okay” he says “That’s how it’s supposed to be” he whispers. Zayn doesn’t know why, but it feels like Harry’s talking more to himself than to Zayn.

Zayn kisses him. Because Harry feels perfect and _right_ in his arms even if he’s still broken and so utterly sad. Zayn doesn’t want to push it, but he _wants_ Harry, with a clarity he never even had before he knew what losing him felt.

Harry understands, because he kisses Zayn just as strongly. Zayn feels the Ruler’s energy ripple and waver, and he smiles more in the kiss, parting his lips to catch Harry’s tongue with his own.

He’s slowly getting hard, but he doesn’t want to do anything about it. He’s perfectly content just kissing Harry until their skin starts to wrinkle in the water.

It’s Harry who does something, though. His big hand snakes between their bodies, to wrap around Zayn’s dick. Zayn immediately stops him by grabbing his wrist. “Haz, babe, we don’t have to…”

“We’re probably gonna die, Zayn, you know” Harry says, matter-of-factly “We have all it takes to defeat the Ruler, but we still don’t know how it will go. No one did it before. So we can’t exclude we’re gonna die anyway. And if I get to have you again no matter how fucking _stupid_ I’ve been to leave you in the first place, I _want you_ now, before we die”

Zayn can fight a lot of things, he’s discovered in the past few months.

But if there’s one thing he can’t fight, it’s what he feels for Harry.

So he nods, breathing on Harry’s lips and letting go of his wrist.

They don’t have proper sex, because Harry’s still too weak. But Zayn doesn’t even mind, because he’s already too happy that he’s got Harry close to him again, and he might as well already come from just Harry’s fingers curling around him and slowly tugging.

He wants to at least do the same for Harry, but he doesn’t manage, because before he can even move, Harry has wrapped his hand around both of them, stroking them together at a pace that is as unnervingly slow as it is fucking perfect.

“Haz, babe, fuck” Zayn pants on Harry’s mouth.

Harry kisses him, slow and dirty. “Imagine this fucker’s face when we come right in front of him” he smirks, pointing upwards with his eyes.

Zayn laughs. He’s tempted of even removing the block so that he can gloat in the Ruler’s face about what Harry just said, but of course he doesn’t. He knows how bad it can be, to scream victory before actually accomplishing it.

So he just chuckles and kisses Harry back, his eyelids fluttering when Harry grabs them just a bit harder, and moves his hand a bit faster. “I love you, Zayn” Harry says.

It’s like Zayn was born exactly to hear those three words come out of Harry’s mouth, because he feels like his insides have suddenly been released from a vice-like grip. He sighs and nods. “I love you, Harry” he whispers, his lips running up to brush Harry’s cheeks.

Harry’s breath slowly becomes more ragged, but so does Zayn, he’s so close. He smiles at Harry, and runs his finger down his forehead, the bridge of his nose, his cupid’s bow.

Harry laughs, and purses his lips to kiss the pad of Zayn’s finger. And then he envelops the finger in his mouth, to the knuckle, and sucks on it.

Zayn isn’t even embarrassed about how fast that makes him come. His orgasm is ripped out of him, no warning, and suddenly he’s coming, the water sloshing and bubbling around their shoulders when he moves too fast and arches his back to follow the movement of Harry’s fist and dick against his own.

As soon as he recovers his eyesight again, he wraps his hand over Harry’s and guides it to wank Harry alone, and Harry doesn’t take that long either. His forehead drops on Zayn’s shoulder, and his legs shake a little as he grunts Zayn’s name and comes as well.

The water has gone almost completely cold when they gather their strength enough to get out of the bathtub. Zayn gets out first, and then helps Harry out as well, wrapping towels and towels around him until he’s sure that Harry’s completely dry and sated, his hair damp but not completely wet anymore.

Harry chuckles, and he kisses Zayn while they both wear clothes.

 

*

 

They make sure Harry eats. Liam cooks for all three of them, and then sits so close to Harry at the table that it can’t be comfortable, but Harry doesn’t seem to mind. He smiles at Liam and leans his head on his shoulder.

“I love you, Leeyum, have I ever told you that?”

Liam chuckles. “Only every day for the past fifteen years” he replies.

Zayn knows Liam doesn’t take it for granted, now, never could. So he just smiles at the two of them, and thanks whatever lies beyond for Liam Payne, because Harry seems to be feeling even better now that his friend is there as well.

Only when Harry’s done eating does Zayn lift the barrier, and bring the Ruler back in his line of sight.

The Ruler gasps like a gag has just been taken off him, and he’s not grinning at Zayn anymore.

“ _The Malik family_ ” he announces, his white eyes darting from Zayn to Dalir and Mahira “ _What a pleasure it’ll be to kill your grandson too_ ”

Zayn scoffs. “You can try, that’s for sure”

Harry and Liam frown and blink, but then they immediately understand that Zayn’s not talking to them. Harry grabs Zayn’s hand, and takes a deep breath.

“ _I’m gonna kill you, your stupid little Amplifier, and I’m gonna eat all your little ghost friends_ ” the Ruler says.

Zayn pretends not to be bothered. “Or, _we_ are gonna kill _you_ , and you’ll be Dark One dust by the time we’re done with you”

The Ruler laughs. “ _You’re so_ stupid _, Zayn Malik. Don’t you know yet? You need more than…_ this _, to defeat me_ ” he gestures with his too long fingers to the lot of them.

Zayn stands up. “Harry, babe” he says.

Harry nods. “Yeah. I’m ready”

“ _You’re not!_ ” the Ruler shouts, laughing “ _Oh, I can’t wait to watch you burn yourselves_ ”

Zayn grins. “Safaa Malik” he murmurs, his eyes closed “Safaa Malik”

The Ruler lets out some kind of shriek, and Zayn feels Harry’s whole body jolt. He knows Harry felt it as well, because he always feels something more when Zayn’s there with him. Zayn can only hope that Harry will also be stronger with Zayn by his side, because they’re gonna fucking need it.

He keeps repeating Safaa’s name, until his chest loosens up a bit and he sees Saf’s little white light.

_Oh, fuck, he’s really_ ugly, she comments once she catches sight of the Ruler.

“ _Who are you?_ ” the Ruler screams “ _What are you doing here? Go away, Light One. I command you to…_ ”

_You’re not_ commanding me _shit, old man_ , Safaa blinks indignantly, _I’m a free ball of light, cheers._

Louis laughs. _Oh, man, she’s your sister, ain’t she?_

Zayn smiles. “She is” he confirms “She… she died when she was four”

“A Light One who died as a child” Niall murmurs, and his smile is so weak, but so _present_ as well.

_Good,_ Zayn thinks, _you need to be strong as well, my new friend._

“Safaa?” Dalir and Mahira whisper, holding hands.

_Hiya, daadi, daada_ , Saf makes a loop in the air. _We never really met. But baba told me loads about you._

Mahira smiles. She pets Safaa like she did with Louis in the morning, and Safaa giggles, looping in the air again before flying next to Harry and ruffling his hair. The movement makes Harry’s hair swish visibly.

Harry jolts and chuckles. “Hey, Safaa. Nice to meet you” he says, standing up “Give me a moment and I’ll be able to see you” he adds resolutely, looking at Zayn with the spark in his eyes, the spark Zayn loves.

Zayn nods. “Liam” he says, before everything else “You… you need to go”

“What? Zayn, I…”

“Liam, Zayn’s right” Harry says gently “We don’t know how this is gonna go. We can’t risk severing the link with the Ruler only for him to tether himself to you. You’re the only one he could take, here”

Liam sighs. “Okay. Harry, if… if you don’t text me as soon as you’re safe, I swear to God I’ll kill you”

Harry chuckles, and hugs Liam.

They wait until Liam’s out the door. Zayn can feel how hard the Ruler is pushing and shaking to make Harry escape, but Harry doesn’t budge, although Zayn’s sure he feels it, because he’s wincing and massaging his own shoulders like they’re hurting.

It’s gonna hurt more, Zayn thinks with a desperate sigh.

As soon as they’re left alone with only the spirits around them, Harry pulls Zayn to himself and kisses him. “If we die” he whispers “I love you. A lot. And I’m glad I decided to call a fake medium after Niall pulled a Patrick Swayze on me”

Zayn chuckles. “I love you too. And I’m glad you believed me when I told you it really was Niall pulling a Patrick Swayze on you”

_Lovely, really_ , Louis groans, _Can you get rid of this_ thing _now?_

“Louis is right” Niall says, and his voice breaks a little “We… we need to move”

Zayn looks at Niall, how bad he looks, and then nods. Harry nods too, and gives Zayn his back. “You… you put your hand in the shadow” Harry says, gulping audibly “And when it’s my turn, you tell me. I’ll get the best grip I can, I promise”

Zayn nods. “Okay, babe” he says, and shoves his hand in the shadow on Harry’s back.

Harry screams. Loud and hard, like Zayn has just shot him in the spine. “Harry?” Zayn screams too, over the snickers of the Ruler.

“Keep…” Harry pants, whimpering “Keep going. Don’t let him go. I see him, Zayn, he’s all over me, it hurts so much”

Niall is quick to stand in front of Harry, his cold hands grabbing him by the shoulder. “Hazza, my Hazza” he just whispers, leaning his forehead against Harry’s “You can do this. Fight him. Pull him” he adds.

Harry cries. He cries Niall’s name, over and over again, and then Louis’s name as well, when Louis also flickers in front of his eyes.

Zayn’s hand is burning. When he looks down at it, he sees the purple aura around himself, but he also sees the purple flames scorching both the Ruler and his own hand. “Don’t let go, meri jaan” Mahira whispers softly in his ear.

“We’re here with you” Dalir adds, on his other side.

Harry can’t look at Zayn in the eyes, but Zayn sees his hand reach backwards.

The Ruler screams so loud Zayn is convinced his earing will be damaged, when Harry also sticks a hand in his dark substance, twisted at a weird angle, but gripping tightly.

Niall hugs Harry with one hand, and then he also shoves a hand in the Ruler.

The Ruler only screams harder, and Zayn can see the substance starting to come off Harry’s back. Harry’s crying and screaming as well, but he doesn’t let go of the Ruler. Zayn finds Harry’s fingers through the shadow, and grips them tightly as well. Harry nods, his head buried in Niall’s neck as all three of them pull.

_Wanted to kill my brother, didn’t you?_ , Safaa screams. _Well guess what, motherfucker. He’s the Great Reaper, and I’m the Light One who died as a child._

She flies right to the Ruler’s face. The Ruler shrieks, an anguished, broken sound, as Safaa hits him repeatedly, her light flashing every time they collide. Gore starts to fall from the Ruler’s face, like Safaa is ripping his skin there just like Zayn’s ripping it from Harry’s back.

It hurts.

Zayn feels like his whole body is on fire as the purple light becomes purple flames all around his body. _Maybe we’re really gonna die as well_ , he thinks, but he doesn’t let go.

Harry’s blue light has also become flames.

Zayn feels it, the bond he shares with Harry. Harry must feel it too, because he raises his head from Niall’s neck, and he turns his neck to look at Zayn. He smiles. “We can do it, babe” he says.

Zayn tugs as hard as he can, knowing that it’s his last try, because his whole body feels like there’s a fire consuming it from within.

The shadow gets ripped off of Harry. Harry screams, falling forward, and Niall catches him. He looks like he’s _alive_ , no saturated aura around him at all, and Harry sags against his chest, breathing heavily and whimpering while Niall shushes him.

The Ruler is still there, in Zayn’s grip. Normal Dark Ones never hurt this much, and they vanish as soon as they’re ripped away from their victim.

The Ruler’s staying, though, whimpering in pain just as Harry is.

Zayn doesn’t know what to do, but his body and his power do. So Zayn doesn’t fight it, lets the _pull pull pull_ guide him, and he moves.

He shoves his other hand in the Ruler, and starts tearing him apart, shred by shred.

Gore splutters on him, a substance as thick as blood, and as black as tar. He screams, because it burns, but he keeps going, screaming harder than the pained screams the Ruler himself is emitting.

It feels like a second and an eternity at the same time, when he finally stops tearing through the Ruler’s shadow, and he disappears at last.

Zayn falls sitting, seeing his purple flames recede until there’s nothing at all. All the shadows and gore on Zayn’s body are also gone.

The room is completely silent. When he looks up, he sees Harry, Niall and his grandparents gape at him. Louis and Safaa are there as well, two balls of light completely still and not uttering a sound.

“You… you _burned_ ” Harry whispers “You burned, but you’re fine now”

Zayn nods.

“That’s what a Great Reaper looks like” Dalir says. He’s smiling, and so is Mahira.

They’re also fading, very fast, and Zayn has barely the time to gather all his strength to stand up and reach them. “You… you’re free?” he asks, frantically.

Mahira smiles again, and nods. “We are, meri jaan” she says “We’re done. We can move on. And it’s thanks to you”

Zayn doesn’t have time to hug them, but it’s okay. Because the relieved smiles they have on their faces are enough, as they keep fading and fading, until they’re not there at all anymore.

_Until next time, daadi, daada_ , Zayn thinks, with a smile of his own.

It’s only when they’re gone that Zayn hears the hushed tones.

He turns, and finds Harry kneeling on the floor, his forehead rested to Niall’s, and they’re speaking. The Ruler’s gone, but Harry’s blue flames are still around him, not hurting him anymore, but there.

Zayn wants to give them some privacy, but he’s too scared that leaving the room will weaken their link, and Harry will stop seeing his friend. His friend to whom he’s saying goodbye.

So he just crosses the room, sitting on the couch, as far away from them as possible without leaving completely. Louis slowly flies to him, settling on his shoulder without a word. Zayn doesn’t mind, his heart feels just a bit more at ease, with Louis so close.

Zayn can still hear Niall and Harry from there, though.

“I’m so sorry, Niall, I’m so sorry I made you like this” Harry whispers.

Niall shakes his head. “It’s okay, Hazza. I wasn’t ready to let you go either, even if it hurt me. I’m ready now. Are you, Hazza?”

Harry sniffles, big tears rolling down his cheeks. “Zayn… Zayn said something to me, earlier. He said that his little sister moved on after he forgave himself” he sobs “Is this your unfinished business, Ni? Are you waiting for me to forgive myself?”

“I think so, Haz. I really think so”

Harry nods. “Do you forgive me, Niall?”

Niall chuckles, his hands smoothing Harry’s curls. “There’s nothing to forgive, Haz. It wasn’t your fault. It was an accident. I have to thank you, if anything. For being my friend. For always being there with me when I needed you” he replies “But if you need to hear it anyway, I forgive you, Harry”

Harry lets out a deep sigh, like he’s never been able to properly breathe before, since Niall has been gone. Zayn feels it deep in his bones, and sees it as well, the moment Niall starts getting better really fast. His smile grows bigger, and he doesn’t look sick anymore. The saturated air around him is there, like any other Remnant, and he’s starting to fade as well.

“What am I gonna do without you, Niall?” Harry moans.

Niall chuckles. He grabs Harry’s face, and his hold isn’t as sure as before, but Zayn knows it’s a good sign after all. Niall looks at Harry in the eyes and smiles. “You’re gonna move on” he says “Besides, it’s not like I’ll be gone. I’ll just be another ball of light floating around your head”

Harry lets out a teary laugh. “Promise? You’re not gonna leave me alone?”

“Never, Hazza” he assures “And you’re not gonna be alone anyway. You have Zayn. Consider it my legacy, Harry. The fact that I’m the reason you met Zayn, connected with him, and got out from the hole my death dug in your heart. This is the good that came from me dying, Harry, and I know you know it”

Harry nods. “Then go, Ni. I’ll be here”

“I’ll be here as well” Niall says with a sigh.

He grins, then, and elongates his arms on each side of Harry’s head, his pointer fingers out and his face right on Harry’s.

Harry laughs and cries at the same time, and does the same with Niall.

And then Niall goes, for real.

Harry sags against the floor, sitting on it and wiping his eyes while his flames subside until Zayn cannot see any blue around him anymore.

Zayn doesn’t have enough strength to walk, but he crawls to Harry anyway, until her reaches him and scoops him up in his arms, kissing his head. “You did good, babe” he whispers “You set him free. He’ll be here with you anyway. And me too”

Harry nods. “And me too” he repeats.

 

*

 

They take their time to recover.

Harry moves in with Zayn on the spot, basically, and they spend days in bed, regaining their strength and kissing and fucking to make sure both of them are alive, and well.

Then, they write everything down in their diary. Zayn writes about what it felt to meet the Ruler, and Harry writes about what it felt to be his victim. They fill pages and pages on how to destroy him, because he’s gone, but they can’t know what the future will bring.

They owe it, to whomever comes next.

Trisha and Yaser cry when Zayn tells them he saw his grandparents, and Safaa. He tells them their daughter moved on and is sassy and happy, same as she was until the day she left them. They cry, but they know Zayn’s saying the truth.

Niall and Louis visit them, sometimes, when they need it or when they’re feeling up for pulling another Patrick Swayze on Harry.

One time, they barge in the room while they’re having sex. Harry laughs his arse off, and Niall states that his Light One eyes are melting, and that he’s traumatized, and that he’s never coming back again.

He comes back the next day anyway.

Liam is happier, now that he knows Louis and Niall have both moved on. He’s not ready to let someone in his life again, not like Louis had, but Louis sighs and tells Zayn Liam will be fine on his own time. Zayn believes him, because Louis knows Liam better than Liam knows himself.

Zayn and Harry are still the Reaper and the Amplifier, and they still take care of removing the Dark Ones from people.

Harry, on his part, takes care of talking to the Remnants as well, through Zayn. He helps them figure out what their unfinished business is, and then makes sure their loved Alive Ones know as well, so that they can let their lost loves move on.

Because it’s the right thing to do, it’s how it’s supposed to go.

 

\---

 

**Sometime in the future**

Nadeem still feels like he’s going fucking crazy, but the fact that Christine is going crazy just the same makes it somehow okay.

“So you really think bothering your grandpas at one in the morning is a brilliant idea, yeah?” Christine asks him as they reach the porch of his grandpas’ house.

Nadeem shrugs. “It’s not my fault. This fucking ball of light told me”

_Light One, please_ , the flickering ball offers. _Don’t worry, it’s gonna be fine. Your granddad loves his sleep, but he loves you more. I know, I’m friends with him._

Nadeem rolls his eyes. “He talks a lot and sometimes I can’t understand a fucking word he says”

“What’s his name again?” Christine asks, jittery, as they climb the stairs under the porch.

“Niall” Nadeem replies.

Christine nods. “He’s Irish, that’s why. Must be the accent”

_Smart-mouthed, your girlfriend, ain’t she?_

Nadeem feels his cheeks burn. “She’s _not_ ” he replies. Nadeem literally just fucking _met_ the girl.

“What’s he saying?” Christine asks.

“Nothing, don’t mind him” he answers, ringing the doorbell “Daada’s gonna kill us”

Christine bats her eyelashes. “Nah, I’m sure he’s cool. Your gramps, too”

“I hope they really know what the fuck’s happening to us” Nadeem mutters.

He’s honestly always been a little scared of his grandpas Zayn and Harry. Of the way they always seem to be reading right through your soul, and of the way they sometimes talk to themselves and grin at nothing at all, like they’ve got some imaginary friends. Nadeem also loves the shit out of them anyway.

On hindsight, though, maybe they’re not imaginary friends. Maybe they’re very real, only Nadeem could never see them.

Before Christine can reply, the door opens, and two very sleepy daada and gramps open the door. Nadeem gapes a little, because he can clearly see the purple aura around Zayn, and the blue one around Harry.

“Oh, fuck” they say together, and Nadeem decidedly shares the sentiment.

Christine giggles. “They’re fit” she says, like nobody will hear her.

Daada laughs, and then grins at something above Nadeem’s head. He’s grinning at Niall, clearly, and Nadeem can now confirm that his daada was never crazy. He’s always been the wisest of them all.

“You’ve just met, haven’t you?” Harry asks, with a smirk.

Christine gasps. “He’s psychic!”

Zayn snorts. “Nah, he’s just my assistant”

“Excuse me, Zayn” Harry clears his throat “Amplifier, please”

Nadeem and Christine exchange a glance. Did he just say _Amplifier_? The same word Niall and the other loud ball of light have been repeating for the past hour?

“Um, daada, gramps?” Nadeem sighs “Do you know that you’re purple and blue?”

Harry grins. “This is gonna be fun. Come on, love” he tells Christine “I’ve written a lot of stuff down for ya” he states, and Christine smiles at Nadeem before following Harry inside the house.

Zayn smiles, and grabs a firm hold of Nadeem’s shoulder. “Come on in, meri jaan. We have a lot to talk about” he says, and Nadeem doesn’t know what’s going on yet, but he finds his daada reassuring anyway.

 

 

_And my sister, my Lindsey, left me in her memories, where I was meant to be._

– Alice Sebold, “The Lovely Bones”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's done. I'm actually quite happy.  
> Let me know what you're thinking :)  
> I am also on Tumblr as wont-you-stay-till-the-am.tumblr.com, come hit me up if you wanna talk.


End file.
